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What happens if your mission-critical technology suddenly stops working? You're faced with IT downtime.Each hour of IT downtime means your company loses money and, sometimes, its good name.How do you stop the downtime and prevent it from happening again?The good news is there are ways to prevent downtime, protect your profits, and keep your reputation intact. Understanding your tech, training your team, and having a plan can prevent network outages.WEBIT Services has over 25 years of experience helping clients in the greater Chicago area achieve their IT goals.By reading this article, you'll discover why IT systems go down and how to prevent downtime.
Downtime occurs when your IT systems become inoperable. A downed system halts productivity if your business relies on your IT system to deliver goods or services.Your business loses profits and productivity for every hour your system is down. Tasks freeze until your system is back online.Besides the money, downtime can hurt your reputation. It can cause missed deadlines and upset customers. If it keeps happening, customers might not trust you in the future.
Have you determined how long your business can be down before accruing damaging loss? Is it an hour? A day? A week?Your comfortable downtime range is your acceptable risk level.Those who want shorter downtimes have low acceptable risk or "risk appetite." On the other hand, those who are comfortable with more extended downtimes have a high acceptable risk level.The amount of downtime you can afford will determine your responses, plans, and investments in backup or continuity systems.Figuring out how much downtime you can handle decides what you do next.You might spend money on backup systems or extra hardware if you hate downtime. If you're okay with downtime, you may simply ensure your tech is in good shape and not invest in redundancy.
Downtime can be attributed to various preventable factors through proper planning, effective IT practices, and an IT incident response plan.The main reasons for downtime are:
Hardware and network failures are often intertwined because "hardware" includes pieces vital to network communication.If an individual laptop fails, that is inconvenient, but it usually does not affect the entire company.However, servers and switches connect business devices, allowing them to communicate with each other and share data. Therefore, if a switch or server suddenly dies, all the devices connected to that network cannot connect.A downed switch or server can shut down an entire operation until a replacement is activated.Servers are often customized, so it can take days or weeks to build and obtain the server and then more time to install and activate backups.The best way to prevent hardware and network failure is to practice regular maintenance on current hardware and replace aged, unreliable hardware.If any hardware is labeled End of Life (EOL), it has reached the end of its productive lifespan and should be replaced.Another way to prevent significant downtime is to practice IT redundancy.For example, you could have two or more switches for your network. If one fails, the second is ready to go instantly.However, redundancy is an additional expense. Examine your risk level comfort and IT budget to see what redundancy you can utilize and afford.You should also ensure that you have system and file backups on physical servers or cloud storage. Quality, available backups allow you to reinstall data and systems after an IT disaster.
When software fails, it can cause downtime. Maintaining and managing your software is essential to ensure it's running smoothly.Software failure can be due to the age of the software. Older software may be considered end-of-support and stop receiving security updates or manufacturer support.It's important to update software within 30 days of an update release to help maintain functionality and security.You may also consider having a software expert within your internal IT team or an IT provider.
If your internet or cloud service fails, it can slow your work. Check the guarantees of these services and have a backup plan.For Cloud-based services and software, verify their downtime guarantees. What is their contingency plan in the face of downtime?If your budget and needs allow, you may consider a second internet provider to avoid downtime from an internet outage. Otherwise, contact your provider to ask what they can guarantee if outages occur.
People make mistakes that can take down IT systems.Failure can occur through poor cybersecurity practices and subsequent cyberattacks.For example, if an employee knows nothing about phishing emails and social engineering, they may create a breach, letting in malware that can crash your systems.Failures can also result from accidental misuse and a lack of technology education.For instance, employees who know nothing about servers or switches might turn one off unwittingly. This will lead to network failure until the system can reboot.The best way to prevent human error is to train employees thoroughly. In addition, have effective internal IT compliance policies and cybersecurity practices.
Natural disasters or accidents can destroy your IT hardware or environment. Unfortunately, users can do little to control disasters, but you can plan for them in your IT incident response plan.While you cannot plan for every possible disaster, you can take steps to protect your data and prepare.This may include housing some backups or equipment off-site or using Cloud storage.Preparation may also include making sure you have adequate insurance coverage.Your IT and insurance providers can help you create your incident response plan to protect your business data in case of a disaster.
IT downtime can damage your profits and reputation.IT system failure can often be caused by the following:
To prevent downtime, organizations can take the following steps:
To know your risk of system failure, ask your IT provider for a quarterly risk assessment. They'll tell you what needs fixing or updating to reduce your risk.Your provider can then create a response plan to address each risk. This plan includes hardware or software recommendations within your IT budget and expectations.If your IT provider hasn't performed a risk assessment in the last three months or after a significant IT or business change, it might be time to examine your IT partnership. Failure to perform risk assessments is a service red flag.WEBIT Services has helped hundreds of clients in the greater Chicago area over the last 25 years.If you are looking for a new IT provider, schedule a free 30-minute consultation to see if WEBIT can help.If you're not ready to make a commitment but would like to learn more about proactive IT practices, we recommend the following articles:
