Downtime is a common problem that many organizations experience. Your business wants to ensure that its bottom line is maximized, but it’s hard to do so when you’re constantly suffering from downtime. This leads to losses that can easily be prevented, especially if you have IT solutions that are designed to keep downtime to a minimum.
Downtime, as reported by the Gartner IT Glossary, is “the total time a system is out of service.” It’s usually caused by an unexpected hardware failure or a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, but another common cause is the theft or destruction of your data resulting from a virus or other threat. Any incident that leaves your systems offline for an extended period of time can break your budget, and it’s your responsibility to keep options functioning as intended.
In other words, any time that isn’t being spent on work can be considered downtime for your business. It’s time that servers aren’t collecting and deploying data -- and time your business isn’t spending processing new leads. In essence, downtime can be equated to lost profits and opportunities, both of which are imperative if your organization wants to spread its influence and grow. As reported by NetworkComputing, an estimated $700 billion is lost every year due to information and communications technology outages. Included in this number are lost employee productivity, lost revenue, and the cost of resolution.
Though there are several causes for downtime, one of the worst and most expensive is hardware failure. Hardware failure is most prominent in businesses that don’t refresh their hardware solutions often. In fact, many organizations are still using the same technology that they were using five, or even ten years ago, which puts them at considerable risk of hardware failure. This is usually what happens to small and medium-sized businesses that don’t have the funds or personnel on-hand to implement new solutions and regularly update their hardware and software.
If your business suffers from downtime, you should know that it’s easily preventable with the right technology solutions. One of the best ways to prevent downtime is with a quality Backup and Disaster Recovery solution, otherwise known as BDR. BDR has the power to protect your organization’s assets from many would-be threats that could bring operations to a halt. BDR can take backups as often as every fifteen minutes, and store them in a secure off-site data center, and the cloud, for quick and efficient data recovery. In fact, BDR can act as a temporary replacement while you’re working to get a downed server back online, effectively minimizing downtime and keeping your business online even during the worst of times.
The best way to take the fight to downtime is by taking proactive measures to prevent it from happening in the first place. Especially with IT for small and medium-sized businesses, proactive solutions are encouraged. This includes monitoring and maintaining your technology to ensure that it doesn’t break down on you, and looking for signs of imminent system failure before it actually happens. In many cases, outsourcing this responsibility is the best way to approach small business IT.
PCSOFT has the skills necessary to make your IT our top priority. We can implement and manage a Backup and Disaster and recovery solution, and remotely monitor your systems for any potential problems that could turn into immense downtime.