9^th

February

2016

Data Center Outages Cost $9,000 Per Minute

• Data Center Management

Robert Gates of Tech Target has reported that the cost of unplanned data center outages now costs companies $9,000 per minute. The Ponemon Institute had released previous studies on this topic in 2010 and 2013, and each time the dollar amount has grown. The total cost of a data outage is now up to $740,357, up 38 percent from 2010. These numbers are not adjusted for inflation, which was not significant during this five-year time period. 

Customer Relationships

Customers may be willing to accept one major outage, but repeated incidents could draw them away entirely, said Larry Ponemon of the Ponemon Institute. Gates added that customers will have differing expectations depending on a company's brand identity. For instance, "a high-end department store may have a higher bar to meet versus a discount shoe retailer."

On the B2B side, downtime can hurt client relationships as well. A recent Verizon data center outage led to JetBlue canceling over 200 flights, reported Yevgeniy Sverdlik of Data Center Knowledge. It's unclear why Verizon didn't implement its disaster recovery plan. The outage affected all of JetBlue's online businesses.

Halting Operations

With businesses harnessing so much data through integrated software networks, their operations are particularly vulnerable to downtime. A manufacturing company losing its enterprise resource planning software due to downtime can see all of its operations come to a screeching halt. This work stoppage can end up costing a manufacturer well over the $9,000 per minute estimate. 

Don't let downtime cost you thousands of dollars and customer loyalty. Custom Networks can provide your company with UPS systems that will prevent downtime in the event of a power outage or other disturbance. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you prepare your system to avoid expensive downtime.