When you look at system downtime, the math is pretty simple, but disturbing. According to recent statistics compiled by International Data Corporation (IDC), each year the average midsize company has between 16 and 20 hours of network, system, or application downtime.
IDC also determined that revenue losses per hour averaged about $70,000. So, these midsize companies are losing about $1.4 million a year in unanticipated downtime.
“Causes of downtime vary, but aging systems can have components or software that fails, while networking links and power grids can fail at any time because of external causes, such as weather, construction work, or natural disaster,” according to IDC. “Outages occurring during business hours result in revenue loss, as orders are dropped, customers move on, and employees cannot access critical applications.”