There’s the whooping cough epidemic in California cities like Sacramento, the West Nile Virus threat in San Jose, and the bomb scare at the JFK International Airport that shut down the terminal for two hours. It’s enough to make you want to stay in your virtual office until the dust settles.

New York and New Jersey Port Authority officials evacuated a terminal at JFK International after a woman called claiming there was a bomb there. That caused flight delays for at least 300 people who were in the terminal at the time. And it wasn’t the first time authorities suspected a bomb in that terminal.

Sometimes travel is necessary to get business done. But more and more often, virtual office technologies fit the bill. Virtual office technologies save time, save money, save headaches during bomb scares, and may keep you safe from infections like the whooping cough or the West Nile virus if you can avoid traveling to the affected areas.

Virtual office technologies like Cisco WebEx, for example, can allow you to hold meetings from virtually anywhere so long as you have an Internet connection. Even if there isn’t a travel delay, natural disaster or virus outbreak, more and more would-be road warriors are curbing their mileage by using virtual office technologies. (Davinci Virtual customers get attractive pricing on Cisco WebEx as part of a virtual communications package.)

Indeed, the web conferencing software and services market is thriving on the demand from global “borderless organizations.” The market is benefiting hugely from businesses' austerity drive which includes enhanced collaboration and reduction in travel costs, according to Frost & Sullivan. Combined, conferencing services and hosted/managed unified communications services will achieve over $4 billion in revenue by the end of 2014, according to Wainhouse Research.

Virtual office technologies are about more than communication. They are also about collaborating more effectively, setting the stage for greater productivity for your company. By combining a virtual office space, which offers you a follow-me anywhere number, with a virtual receptionist, which adds an even more professional edge to your operation, and a virtual assistant, which frees up to focus on business-critical tasks, and a web conferencing solution, which cuts down travel time, you can fine-tune your business for far less than it costs to rent traditional office space.

Check out this video on how Cisco WebEx can save small businesses money on travel: