How Is Downtime Impacting Your Data Center?

We’ve all been there: You think your data center is healthy and performing optimally, and then out of nowhere, downtime rears its ugly head.

What makes downtime so problematic? First and foremost, it’s expensive. New research shows that the average cost of downtime rose from $690,000 in 2013 to $740,000 in 2015.

Money aside, though, downtime can impact a business in many different ways. Some of the top ways include:

Lost productivity: These days, the vast majority of business functions take place on the network. These functions include everything from communications services like email and VoIP to data storage to lights, climate control and security systems.  When these services stop functioning, they can cripple productivity across the entire building. It’s not just the data center that gets impacted. From the front desk to the C-suite, every worker suffers from downtime.

Reduced morale: Just because the network stops functioning, it doesn’t mean work goes away. When people can’t get their work done due to network downtime, they get frustrated—and rightfully so, as it can cause important tasks to back up. Nobody likes having to stay late to make up for lost time during the day.

Reduced faith in IT: Look, we’re network folks, so we know darned well that when downtime happens, everyone looks to the IT department for answers. After all, it’s IT’s job to maintain uptime; and most employees only notice the network when something goes wrong! Downtime can cause management to lose faith in the IT department and possibly even consider outsourcing operations to a hosted provider.  

Unhappy customers: Your customer-facing applications may also be at risk from downtime. Customers, after all, have high expectations when it comes to software performance. A lengthy outage could be damaging enough to send your customers searching for competitors.

Unnecessary upgrades: When downtime happens, IT departments often spend a great deal of time examining their networks looking for problems. They may discover faulty routers or servers, which can trigger the alarm—and subsequently, an unnecessary spending spree for new equipment when it may not be necessary.

While downtime can be a formidable opponent, there are steps you can take to overcome the challenge. For example, you could invest in the services of a new and refurbished technology solutions provider like Network Craze.

Network Craze offers ongoing maintenance plans for most products, meaning your equipment will receive the extra TLC that it needs to stay in proper working condition. Network Craze will also offer around the clock support, so if you run into an unexpected error you can receive expert advice on how to restore your system.

Plus, if you do suffer from unexpected downtime and require a replacement part, Network Craze can provide ultra-fast, same day ship times. We’ll even help you to install network components so that you can get up and running as quickly as possible.

Want to learn more about how Network Craze can help protect your network? Click here.