DowntimeCost:HowtoCalculateand Minimizeit
Downtimeisbadforbusiness.Whenapplications,dataandservicesareunavailable,business isdisrupted,customersandstakeholdersareunhappy,andregulatoryauthoritiesfineyou.The truecostofunplanneddowntimegoesbeyondlostrevenue.Howdoesonecalculate downtimecosts?
Inthisblog,we’lltakeacloserlookatdowntime,howtocalculatedowntimecosts,andthe bestpracticestominimizeit.
Whatis“downtime”?
“Downtime”iswhenmost,orall,productionandbusinessprocessesareunavailable.Thiscan becausedbyhardwarefailure,humanerror,ransomwareattack,accidental/malicious deletion,failedsoftwareupdated,power/networkoutage,andnaturaldisasters.
Whenanorganizationexperiencesdowntime,itsITsystems,suchasservers,production, cloud,databases,andapplications,areofflineorunavailable.
Thelongerthedowntime,thehigherthecosts.Thecostofdowntimeincludesmonetarylosses intheformoflostsales,costofrepair/maintenance/support,andovertimepayforemployees, inadditiontoreputationaldamage.
Withoutaneffectivebackupanddisasterrecovery(DR)plan,organizationsriskprolonged downtime,disruption,dataloss,andfinancialandreputationaldamages.
TheTwoTypesofDowntime:PlannedandUnplanned
Mostoutagescanbeclassifiedundertwotypesofdowntime:plannedandunplanned.
Whatisplanneddowntime?
Planneddowntimeiswhenthestorageadministratoranticipatesanoutageandsystem unavailability.Thiscanbeduetosystemmaintenance/repair,forkliftupgrade,softwarepatch, operatingsystem(OS)update(s),andtesting.
Typically,planneddowntimeisscheduledontheweekendsandholidayssothatemployee productivityandbusinessisnotnegativelyimpacted.
Whatisunplanneddowntime?
Unplanneddowntimeissudden,uncontrolled,andcanhappenanytime.Itcanbecausedby ransomwareattack,humanerror,zero-dayexploits,virus,hackers,power/networkoutage, phishingcampaigns,andnaturaldisaster
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Whetherit’saransomwareattackoraserverhardwareissue,unplanneddowntimesare costly,disruptcriticalbusinessoperations,andimpactemployeeproductivity.Withtheright backupandrecoverysystem(s),organizationscaneffectivelyminimizedowntimeandensure businesscontinuity
CalculatingtheTrueCostofDowntime
Downtimecostsaredifferentforeachorganizationdependingonthescaleandtheindustry they’rein.Forexample,asmalltomediumsizedbusiness(SMB)inhealthcaremayhave higherdowntimecostsascomparedtoalarge-scaleserviceproviderinfoodindustry
It’simportanttonotethatthecostofdowntimegoeswell-beyondlostrevenue/sales.To calculatethiscost,businessownersneedtoanalyzeoperationsthatcanbeaffecteddirectlyor indirectlybydowntime.
Whatyouneedtoknowtocalculatethecostofdowntime:
Here’swhatyouneedtoknowtocalculatethecostofdowntime:
Analyzethepercentageofprocesses,operations,services,andapplications,thatare disrupted,therevenuetheygenerate,andtheyimpacttheyhaveonemployeeproductivity Considertheaveragehourly/daily/weekly/monthlyrevenue.
Estimatehowmuchrevenueyourbusinessexpectstolosewhencertain processes/operationsaredisrupted/unavailable.
Howtocalculatethepercentageofproductivitylostandrevenueloss
Theinformationabovewillallowyoutohaveanestimateofproductivityandrevenuelossdue tounplanneddowntime.
Anyofthefollowingthreeformulaecanbeusedtocalculateproductivityloss:
1 Productivityloss=(Numberofaffectedusers)x(percentageofproductivityimpacted)x (salaryperhour)x(lengthofthedowntime)
2 Productivityloss=(Numberofaffectedusers)x(percentageofproductivityimpacted)x (profitperemployee)x(lengthofdowntime)
3 Productivityloss=(Numberoftransactionsperhour)x(percentageofproductivity impacted)x(averageprofitpertransaction)x(lengthofdowntime)
Here’stheformulatocalculatethelostrevenue:
LostRevenue=(Grossannualrevenue)/(Totalbusinesshoursinayear)x(percentageof productivityimpacted)x(lengthofdowntime)
Itisalsoimportanttonotethatdowntimecostsarenotjustdefinedintermsoflostrevenue. Thecostalsoincludesreputationaldamage,thatcanaffectcustomertrust,breachedservice levelagreements(SLAs),andregulatorycomplianceissues.
HowtoReduceITDowntimeCosts
Thebestwaytomakesurethatunplanneddowntimehasminimumimpactonproductionisto bepreparedforitbeforehand.Herearethebestpracticestoreducethelengthofdowntime, andtheresultingcosts:
HaveaDisasterRecoveryPlan
Aneffectivedisasterrecoveryplandetailswhatbackupadministratorsneedtodotoreduce downtimeefficientlyandwithminimumimpacttoproduction.Itdetailspreventivemeasures,to minimizethespreadofdowntimeifit’scausedbyransomware,anddatarecoverymeasures oncethehardwareisrepaired/restored.
It’simportanttonotethataneffectivedisasterrecoveryplanisonethat’scontinuouslytested andupdated.Featuressuchasavirtualsandboxenvironmentfacilitatethisbyprovidinga bubblenetworkthatallowsfordisasterrecoverytestingwithoutimpactingproduction.
SetUpaBackupandDisasterRecovery(BCDR)Solution
BackupandDRmakessurethatyouhaveawaytorecoverdataandrestoreoperations,even whenallelsefails.
AreliablebackupandDRsolutioncomeswithbuilt-inransomwareprotectioncapabilities, suchasair-gap,immutablefileandS3objectlockdown,snapshots,encryption,andallowsfor quickrecoverywithfeaturessuchasgranularfile-levelrestore,multi-VMspinup,anddirect restoretocloud.AgreatexampleofsuchaBCDRsolutionthatofferssaidcapabilitiesisthe StoneFlyDR365VVeeam-readybackupandDRsystem
AutomationisakeycomponentofareliablebackupandDRsolutionbecauseitreduces managementoverhead,andthechancesofhumanerror.Thisfollowsthatair-gapand immutabilitymustbeautomatedforthemtobetrulyeffective.
ReduceSurfaceofAttacks
Surfaceofattacksarevulnerableendpointsthatransomwareandhackerscanexploittogain accesstoyournetworkandencryptand/orstealcriticaldata.
Inatypicalbackupsystem,therearethreesurfacesofattacks:
Backupserver(Veeam,Commvault,Rubrik,Zerto,etc.)
Switches(betweenthebackupserverandthestoragestack)
Storagestack
Topreventdowntime,it’snecessarytoreducethepossibilityofacyberattackfrom3xto1x andthatcanbedonewithautomatedair-gappedbackupsandimmutability.Thisisthereason whyautomatedair-gapandimmutabilityareincludedasbuilt-infeaturesinallStoneFly backupandDR,storage,hyperconverged,andcloud-basedsolutions.
RemoveSinglePoint(s)ofFailure
Similartosurfaceofattacks,ifthereisnointegratedhardwareandsoftwareredundancy,the ITinfrastructureisvulnerabletofailureanddowntime.Bymakingsurethatsuchsinglepoint(s) offailurearetakencareof,preferablywithautomation,backupadministratorscaneffectively reducedowntime.
Forexample,ifthere’snoRAID,aharddrivefailurecanleadtodisruptionorintheworst-case dataloss.Similarly,ifthere’sonlyonecopyofbusiness-criticalworkloads,themomentthe hardware/softwarefails,thesystemandthedependentprocesseswillbedisrupted.Aneasy waytoovercomethisistohavesomeformofbackups;preferablyinanautomatedair-gapped andimmutableenvironment.
MinimizingHumanError
Accordingtoa2020ITICsurvey,respondentsheldhumanerrorresponsiblefor60%of unplanneddowntime
Theincreaseintargetedsociallyengineeredphishingscams,ransomwareattacks,corporate espionage,businessemailcompromise(BEC),andsupplychainattacks,suggestthathuman errorwillcontinuetobealeadingcauseofunplanneddowntime.
Whilehumanerrorcannotbecompletelyeliminated,itcanbeminimized,andhere’show:
Automateroutinebusiness-criticalprocessessuchasbackups,air-gapping,immutability, snapshots,recovery,failover/failback,andbackupandDRtesting.
Regularlytestbackupstomakesurethattheyhaven’tbeencorrupted,andareavailablefor recoverywhennecessary.Betteryet,automatethesetestsusingavirtualsandbox environmentthatdoesn’timpactproduction.
Educateyouremployeestospotphishingcampaignsandotherimprintsofcyberattacks early-onwhichwillthenallowthemtoactappropriately.Thereinlimitingexposureand reducingthechancesofdataloss,disruption,anddowntime.
MitigateUnplannedDowntimewithStoneFly
Toreduceunplanneddowntimeanditscostseffectively,youneedtoplanahead,havereliable backupanddisasterrecovery(DR),andautomateittoavoidhumanerror,that’swhere StoneFlycomesin.
StoneFlyoffersthefollowingsolutionsandservicestohelpyoufromplanning,setup,testing, torecovery:
SmartProtectServices–Ourexpertsworkwithyoutoplanyourbackupanddisaster recovery,setitup,optimizeit,testit,andfully/partiallymanageitremotely Veeam-ReadyBackupandDRSolution(DR365V)–Fullyturnkeyautomatedair-gapped andimmutableVeeam-readybackupandDRapplianceswithonsite/cloudS3object storage.
VeeamCloudConnectBackupandReplicationtoCloud–Noroomforhardwareor lookingforanoffsitedataprotectionsolution?LeverageVeeamcloudconnectbackupto Azure/AWSforcloudbackup,and/orsetupreplicationtoStoneFlyprivatecloudforcloud disasterrecovery.WeofferacompletesolutionthatincludesVeeamlicenses,management server,gateway,andair-gapandimmutablestorageinthecloudforyourchoice. Veeam-ImmutableVeeamAir-Gapped(VIVA)Nodes–Fullyautomatedphysicalairgappednodeswithintegratedpolicy-basedpowerandnetworkmanagement.
Conclusion
Downtimeisunpredictableandareactiveapproachtodowntimeiscostly.Downtimecosts dependonhowlongittakestorecoverdataandsystems.Thecostsarenotjustlimitedtolost revenue.Theyalsoincludereputationaldamage,repair/recoverycosts,SLAfees,compliance fines,andPR-relatedcosts.Safetosay,it’snecessaryforbusinessestodaytoprepare beforehandfordowntime.
Thebestwaytominimizeunplanneddowntimeanditscostsistoplanahead,testregularly, andhaveareliablebackupanddisasterrecoverysolutionthatincludesautomation,air-gap, andimmutability
Needhelpwithdowntimecosts?Wecanhelp!Contactourexpertstodiscussyourprojects today
ABOUTSTONEFLY
Foundedin1996andheadquarteredinCastroValley–StoneFly,Inc.wasestablished withthevisiontosimplify,optimizeanddeliverhighperformancebudget-friendlydata centersolutionsforSMBs,SMEs,andlargeenterprises.Beginningwithitsregistrationof theiSCSI.comInternetdomainnameinMarch1996,StoneFlyhasmadeiSCSIintoa standardwhichisnowusedbyITprofessionalsaroundtheworld.
Withover24yearsofinnovationindatastorage,hyperconvergedinfrastructure(HCI), andbackupanddisasterrecovery(DR)industriesandtechnologypartnershipswith marketleaderslikeVMware,Veeam,MicrosoftAzure,andAWScloud,StoneFly’srange ofever-growingdatamanagementproductscontinuetogrowandincludephysical, virtual,andcloudsolutionssuchasNAS,SAN,S3,unifiedNAS+SAN+S3appliances, storagegateways,backupgateways,completebackupandDRsystems,RAIDsystems, IPvideosurveillancestoragesystems,datamigrationsoftwareandmore–poweredby StoneFly’spatented8thgenerationstoragevirtualizationsoftwareStoneFusion™and integratedwithenterprisefeaturesanddataservices.