Network Downtime - Counting the Cost
Network Downtime – Counting the Cost
May 2006: The failure rate of network equipment is around 5%: one in twenty devices on any one network will fail at some point. Whether that is a 48 port telephony router or a critical converged hub, the financial implications are significant. So why are so few businesses measuring the cost of network downtime or taking appropriate steps to minimise business interruption?
In fact, companies are not paying as much for support today as they were paying ten years ago. Many indeed believe that network products have achieved commodity status and problems can be rapidly resolved with quick swap out/swap in. This is patently untrue. Indeed in the converged marketplace, technology is highly complex and demands both excellent skills and experience.
And given the lack of converged skills available, most organisations are actually experiencing a higher level of network incidents due to poor internal and external support processes, not component failure. Poor change management and escalation processes, combined with no clear lines of responsibility are increasing failure rates and leaving organisations without both voice and data networks – at a huge business cost.
Why are so many prepared to risk the business by skimping on network maintenance? Without a good understanding of the risk it seems impossible for the majority of organisations to associate value with network maintenance or support. Yet using generic business models it is a simple process to measure the cost of downtime, providing clear guidance on where good, relevant maintenance contracts can deliver quantifiable value.
Why invest in highly sophisticated new technology to improve productivity and customer service yet risk fundamental business damage by failing to protect that technology in the event of failure, whether that is due to component problems or configuration errors?
Networks are not commodity items. They should not be treated as such. Taking the cheap option for network maintenance will leave too many businesses counting the cost.
