First, the good news. Serious data center outages are on the decline. The latest study from the Uptime Institute finds that just 27 percent of organizations experienced a “significant,” “serious” or “severe” outage in the past three years. Increasingly reliable IT equipment and investment in backup systems have reduced the frequency and impact of outages.
However, unplanned downtime and disruption remain major headaches for IT teams. According to a new report from New Relic, IT teams spend an average of 30 percent of their time addressing disruptions. Network failures, problems with third-party services and human error are the primary causes of unplanned outages.
These aren’t the types of outages that make headlines, but the costs add up. Even if the disruption only impacts a handful of users, the organization takes a hit in terms of productivity. IT teams are distracted from day-to-day tasks and important projects as they work to identify, troubleshoot and fix the problem.
However, unplanned downtime and disruption remain major headaches for IT teams. According to a new report from New Relic, IT teams spend an average of 30 percent of their time addressing disruptions. Network failures, problems with third-party services and human error are the primary causes of unplanned outages.
These aren’t the types of outages that make headlines, but the costs add up. Even if the disruption only impacts a handful of users, the organization takes a hit in terms of productivity. IT teams are distracted from day-to-day tasks and important projects as they work to identify, troubleshoot and fix the problem.
Why IT Outages Are Difficult to Resolve
That’s because IT outages are seldom straightforward. Organizations today rely on an array of third-party applications and services. As support tickets start coming in, it can be difficult initially to determine whether the problem lies with the in-house IT environment or a third-party service. In many cases, these services intersect with one another and with in-house systems.
The recent CrowdStrike outage is a prime example. When the incident occurred on July 19, 2024, IT teams in organizations around the world were scrambling to identify the root cause of the problem and find workarounds that would get their systems back up and running. They didn’t know at first that the problem was the result of a glitch in an update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon security software.
Meanwhile, organizations were losing millions of dollars a minute. By some estimates, the outage caused more than $10 billion in financial damage worldwide.
The recent CrowdStrike outage is a prime example. When the incident occurred on July 19, 2024, IT teams in organizations around the world were scrambling to identify the root cause of the problem and find workarounds that would get their systems back up and running. They didn’t know at first that the problem was the result of a glitch in an update to CrowdStrike’s Falcon security software.
Meanwhile, organizations were losing millions of dollars a minute. By some estimates, the outage caused more than $10 billion in financial damage worldwide.
The Compound Impact of ‘Low-Impact’ Outages
Few outages reach that magnitude, but IT teams struggle with garden-variety outages every day. The organizations surveyed by New Relic had a median of 232 disruptions annually. More than half experienced low-impact outages every week.
Both the Uptime Institute and New Relic studies note that many of these disruptions are caused by human error. Staff failing to follow procedures, incorrect procedures and installation problems are among the top causes of human error-related disruptions. The greater the IT team’s workload, the more likely that errors will occur.
Lack of visibility into the IT environment slows troubleshooting and resolution of these issues. Many IT teams use multiple monitoring tools that aren’t well integrated, making it difficult to prioritize and correlate alerts and pinpoint the root cause of problems. The time spent handling low-impact outages adds up to a significant IT resource drain.
Both the Uptime Institute and New Relic studies note that many of these disruptions are caused by human error. Staff failing to follow procedures, incorrect procedures and installation problems are among the top causes of human error-related disruptions. The greater the IT team’s workload, the more likely that errors will occur.
Lack of visibility into the IT environment slows troubleshooting and resolution of these issues. Many IT teams use multiple monitoring tools that aren’t well integrated, making it difficult to prioritize and correlate alerts and pinpoint the root cause of problems. The time spent handling low-impact outages adds up to a significant IT resource drain.
The Benefit of Managed Services
Managed services can help alleviate that resource drain and reduce the impact of IT outages. Qualified managed services providers (MSPs) have made significant investments in IT monitoring and management tools, enabling them to isolate and resolve issues faster than many in-house IT teams. Additionally, MSPs have a deep bench of engineers with expertise across a wide range of IT disciplines. They have seen many problems before and stay abreast of known issues and security threats.
Additionally, MSPs perform routine maintenance that reduces the frequency of disruptions. Well-defined methodologies and documented procedures help minimize the risk of human error.
Cerium has decades of experience delivering managed services to customers throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. We will customize a solution to precisely align with your IT environment and business processes, ensuring that we reduce the risk of issues that would impact your operations. Let us help you cut the number of IT outages and accelerate the resolution of outages that do occur.
Additionally, MSPs perform routine maintenance that reduces the frequency of disruptions. Well-defined methodologies and documented procedures help minimize the risk of human error.
Cerium has decades of experience delivering managed services to customers throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. We will customize a solution to precisely align with your IT environment and business processes, ensuring that we reduce the risk of issues that would impact your operations. Let us help you cut the number of IT outages and accelerate the resolution of outages that do occur.
