The Cause of Downtime and How to Avoid It

It’s no secret that things are more expensive these days, making it imperative that businesses have access to the technology needed to generate revenue. Without this access, a business suffers downtime and all the challenges it brings… not something you want to do.

Let’s consider why downtime happens, the scale of its costs, and what can be done to avoid it.

What Leads to Downtime?

When people hear “downtime,” it’s common for them to start catastrophizing. We can’t help but think of all the worst-case scenarios that could lead to that downtime… a fire, flood, weather event, anything that physically destroys the business.

While these events certainly could lead to downtime, they are not a comprehensive list. In fact, there are five other, less-appreciated causes of business downtime to keep in mind:   

1. Hardware failure - Any element of your physical infrastructure—servers, storage media, and networking equipment—could easily malfunction or break, leading to downtime.
2. Human error - Everyone makes mistakes. The wrong file accidentally deleted or a similar error could easily create a significant lapse in your operations.
3. Bugs and glitches - Your software applications or operating systems could be vulnerable to bugs and crashes, which can lead to interruptions and downtime.
4. Cyberattack - Various incidents, like ransomware, DDoS attacks, and other such attacks can interrupt IT services, often resulting in downtime.
5. Power failure - Information technology runs on electricity. No power, no productivity.

Nonetheless, All Forms of Downtime Will Cost You

While the actual monetary impact will be affected by various factors—your industry, how much you rely on IT to function, and many, many others—it’s a safe bet that it will be extremely costly. Most downtime measures in the hundreds or potentially thousands of dollars per minute… something few businesses can sustain for long.

How Can You Prevent Downtime?

If you’re going to keep your losses down and productivity up, you need to prioritize a few things:

Have a Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan

This is an important step for any business to take, as it protects against disasters and downtime by providing a level of redundancy that—provided your backups are properly maintained—will better ensure operations can be resumed quickly. This plan must also be tested regularly to evaluate how effectively it works.

Maintain Your Technology

From your software and applications to the hardware your team relies on daily, you need to keep everything patched, up-to-date, and otherwise maintained to help prevent hangups and failure. Proactive monitoring is an invaluable tool for accomplishing this goal.

Invest in Your Security

Cyberattacks aren’t going away, so you must be sure you are as protected as possible against their influence. Antivirus and firewall software, intrusion detection systems, and (again) regular updates can all help you advance toward this goal. You also need to train your employees to keep cybersecurity top-of-mind to help reduce the efficacy of social engineering efforts.

You should be the one dictating your business’ hours, not downtime. Call Macro Systems at 703-359-9211 today to let us help put you back in the driver’s seat. Our services can help you reduce downtime and maximize your productivity in other ways.