Two words no business wants to hear? “IT downtime.”
IT downtime is a serious matter for any size business, particularly if you’re the one in charge of purchasing those systems.
With nearly all modern-day IT systems hosted online or dependent on the cloud (think: servers, your network, databases, website, email system, and any SaaS-based applications), it’s not a question of if you might experience an unexpected network or system outage but rather when.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to minimize the impact and frequency. We’ve compiled a list of 11 of the best ways to guard against this unwelcome reality.
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The Costs of IT Downtime
The costs of unplanned downtime can be staggering.
Nearly half (47%) of businesses with 200 to 500 employees estimate that a single hour of downtime can cost them in excess of $100,000.
Over 30% of outages result in a direct revenue loss.
But it’s not just financial damage. About 40% of disruptions led to some sort of brand reputation damage. Nearly half of all data disruptions caused lost productivity, and 43% of organizations experienced data loss as a result of outages.
Calculate downtime costs
To calculate downtime cost, measure the revenue lost during that period.
Downtime cost = (revenue per hour/operating hours) × downtime hours.
The answer is the immediate loss in revenue.
Most Common Causes of Unplanned IT Downtime
Human Error is the cause for major outages for 40% of businesses over the past 3 years.
Networking Issues are the single biggest cause of all IT service downtime incidents.
Cyberattacks and Ransomware 76% of organizations reported at least one attack in the past 12 months.
Actionable steps to take now to prevent IT downtime
According to findings, nearly half (47%) of businesses with 200 to 500 employees estimate that a single hour of downtime can cost them in excess of $100,000. Contrast that with a 2021 configuration error that took Facebook offline for six hours, resulting in an estimated loss of $100 million in ad revenue.
Although the total size of loss is smaller, for small and medium-sized businesses, these disruptions are not insignificant. The consequences of data unavailability include lost productivity and revenue, damaged brand reputation and even loss of data.
There are steps you can take now to minimize IT downtime later. Following, you’ll find a list of the most effective ways to safeguard your systems with information about why it matters and specific actions you can take.
1. Keep an Eye on Micro-Outages.
Why it matters: It’s not just the whoppers like the Facebook example that can damage your bottom line; micro-downtimes and micro-outages occur — all the time. Everyday occurrences such as a file that won’t download from the company cloud; a SaaS program that crashes or even worse, takes data with it. Over time, these outages add up to lost productivity and revenue.
Action steps: Ask around. Survey the business and ask staff how often they experience downtime each day and how. Collecting this feedback can arm IT with valuable information, allowing them to proactively detect and resolve these issues, preventing a micro-downtime from turning into a macro one.
2. Monitor the Surroundings.
Why it matters: It may seem unnecessary, but physical threats can compromise your infrastructure, too. Fires, water damage, pests gnawing on cables and unintentional employee actions (beverages where they shouldn’t be) can all lead to significant technical disruptions.
Action steps: Conduct weekly maintenance checks to ensure all systems are in good working order and keep a maintenance log, including any issues for future reference. Look for obvious hazards such as physical damage to equipment, loose cables, air flow blockages, or an overly hot server room that can pose a hardware risk.
3. Consolidate tools and vendors.
Why it matters: It's estimated that within tech stacks, at least 5-10% of solutions have overlapping functionalities. This is a common issue but one worth addressing. The fewer solutions, tools and vendors you must deal with, the more efficient and cost-effective you can be.
Action steps: Before cutting any vendors, take the time to assess your current tools, identify any redundancies; define clear goals for consolidation — is it cost reduction, streamlined management, or both? Also be sure to engage key stakeholders to gather input and align business needs.
4. Check the temperature - and batteries.
Why it matters: When there’s a power system failure, your uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is indispensable. But once installed, they’re often forgotten. This explains why 40% of data center outages are caused by an unavailable UPS. Why? Battery failure.
Action steps: This is an easy one to manage. Schedule regular battery health checks to ensure the UPS is there when you need it most. (Note: the typical lifespan of a UPS battery is 3-5 years.) Also monitor data center heat loads — high temperatures can substantially reduce battery life.
5. Deploy Robust Security Measures.
Why it matters: In 2023, 76% of organizations reported at least one cyberattack in the past 12 months. The cost of a cyberattack for mid-sized businesses? On average, around $25,000 per incident.
Action Steps: You have valuable data that cyber criminals want; they assume you won’t have sophisticated security measures in place. Prove them wrong by implementing security protocols beyond just antivirus software. Firewalls, anti-malware tools, intrusion detection systems, endpoint security solutions and patch management software are all crucial components of a sound security strategy. Conducting regular security assessments can help you determine an appropriate level of protection to safeguard the data you store.
6. Monitor and Maintain Your IT Infrastructure.
Why it matters: Regular monitoring and maintenance of your IT infrastructure will help identify potential issues before they lead to downtime or hardware failures.
Action steps: We covered security monitoring above, but you’ll also want to track the “health” of your network. By continuously monitoring network traffic and bandwidth usage (with online tools), you can detect unusual patterns before they become bottlenecks, allow unauthorized access, or enable impending failures. At a minimum, schedule regular maintenance checks and replace hardware proactively before it fails.
7. Implement Two-Step Verification
Why it matters: Strengthening authentication reduces the risk of unauthorized access, which can lead to data breaches and subsequent downtime.
Action Steps: Require two- or multi-factor authentication (a user must enter a special code after providing the correct password) for all critical systems. Regularly audit and update authentication processes to ensure they remain secure.
8. Backup Data Often.
Why it Matters: Backing up critical data ensures that your business can recover quickly from data loss — whether that’s due to a hardware failure or cyberattack.
Action Steps: In the event you are a victim of an attack or data loss, implementing a robust backup strategy will help lessen the operational impact to you and your customers. Tactics range from regular backups to implementing secure, off-site storage. But don’t “set it and forget it”: test backups periodically to ensure data integrity and restore capabilities.
9. Develop a Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan.
Why It Matters: For small and medium-sized businesses, the stakes are high when downtime occurs. Just as a back-up strategy minimizes disruption and financial losses, so can a thorough Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan.
Action Steps: Regularly review and update your BCDR plan — and if you don’t have one, create one — you will be better positioned to respond effectively and quickly should an event occur. Make sure your plan details the processes, technologies, and procedures you will use and follow to recover systems and data. Conduct frequent drills to ensure everyone is on board and understands their role.
10. Train Employees.
Why It Matters: Employees are your first line of defense against downtime, especially when you consider that human error was responsible for 40% of major IT outages over the past three years. Providing regular training ensures staff are equipped to prevent and respond to potential issues.
Action Steps: Conduct regular training sessions on new technologies and cybersecurity best practices. Threats change constantly and are increasingly sophisticated. Employees that work outside of the office but have email accounts may not be aware of the latest risks and scams. Provide frequent training, if not incentives for reporting any potential threats.
11. Assess Risk Proactively.
Why it Matters: An IT risk assessment is a systematic process to identify, evaluate, and prioritize potential threats to your organization's IT infrastructure. Conducting one can expose any issues, providing you a valuable opportunity to develop proactive measures and mitigate potential IT threats.
Action Steps: A risk assessment is a multi-step process that requires you to: identify potential threats, evaluate vulnerabilities, assess impact and likelihood, prioritize risks, develop mitigation strategies, conduct continuous monitoring, and regularly update risk assessments and strategies.
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What about you? How do you handle downtime? What best practices do you have in place to mitigate risk and maximize output?
Please share in the comments below!