Turn on. Sign in. Get to work. This is the common modus operandi for millions across the country that rely on computers and a reliable network connection to carry out their daily tasks.

We often take it for granted that on any given day we’ll have access to internal networks, the internet, and our very own suite of applications. While this is a reasonable expectation, in reality it doesn’t always happen. We’ve all been at the mercy of the “no connection available” notifications on our desktop or a network that keeps going on and offline. What now? Do you sit there and twiddle your thumbs hoping the interruption doesn’t last half a day? You could – and most do. They learn to live with it. However, you don’t have to.

One of the easiest ways to mitigate downtime and financial losses associated with it is to make sure your cloud hosting provider has the infrastructure in place to handle unforeseen occurrences like DOS attacks, power outages, and spikes in network usage.

Downtime may seem like just a price of being in business, but have you ever calculated the actual cost? According to a survey of the
top 400 mid to large-size firms in North America with at least 500 employees – each downtime incident cost about a $1,000,000 in lost productivity, revenue, and hardware maintenance. Collectively, the top Fortune 1000 companies suffered unplanned downtime loss in access of $1.25 billion in 2015.

Realizing the true cost of downtime becomes more urgent when you learn that downtime incidents are only growing costlier. In 2010, the average cost per minute (cpm) of unplanned outages was $939. Fast-forward just 6 years later, and the average CPM is $16,246. That’s a cost increase of 1700% in only a few years – and, with tech only becoming more integrated and innovative – the cost isn’t likely to go down any time soon.

The costs associated with downtime take many forms

You could be losing revenue by way of:

• System Restorations
• Lost Employee Productivity
• Lost Sales Opportunities
• Lost Customers
• Damaged Reputation

Reducing the frequency and duration of downtime should be your #1 priority if technology is vital in carrying out your business operations. Mitigating just a few incidents within a calendar year can save you untold thousands – perhaps, millions. Even better than being shocked by outside averages and statistics is to do an internal calculation of your business’ own cost per minute. It will be eye-opening to see on paper much money you’re losing to IT woes and how much of it you could be reallocating towards growth.

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