Everyone knows that downtime is costly. Everyone also
knows that downtime is preventable (to a certain extent), and certainly,
what cannot be prevented, can be managed and mitigated.  But this knowledge
alone may not move anyone to act, largely because “action” is also costly.
It takes time, money and staff resources to analyze needs and develop
working solutions. And, above all, expenses have to be justified. 
Read on to learn how it’s done.

What is Technology “Downtime”?

“Downtime” is hard to define. The meaning will vary by organization,
person, system and event. On a big picture level, downtime occurs whenever
a given system (application, server, network) cannot be accessed or
used for its intended purpose. Obviously, there are “shades” of downtime
based on the degree of impact (intermittent interruptions or full-blown
outage), duration, frequency, visibility (internal systems versus external
systems for customer usage), and extent (the number of end-users and
locations involved). These “shades” drive related costs and the need
for effective management solutions.  (Also Read: 
Offering Apologies for
Service Problems)

All that said, a strategic approach to managing IT in business
demands a “practical, big picture view”.  Technology outages
happen.  These events must be prevented to the extent possible
(through quality service and operational management).  But,
since downtime is largely inevitable despite the best practices, IT
managers must consider all the “costs” and take appropriate action
to mitigate negative consequences.

Understanding the Costs of Downtime

They say that everything has a “cost”, and of course downtime
in IT is no exception.  Of course, there are the hard
costs, encompassing the financial expenditures needed to recover
from downtime events, as well as the related financial losses
directly attributable to downtime events (i.e. lost revenue due to
an inability to process purchase requests or lost salaries due to an
inability of staff to perform expected functions).

Then you have the other side of the downtime cost equation — the
“soft cost”.  These costs may be more difficult to quantify in
terms of a specific downtime event, but they are no less real or
damaging.

How to Define the Hard Costs of Downtime

The first step is to identify all of the elements posing
“downtime risks”, including any infrastructure
devices, servers, desktops, applications and productivity systems (phone,
email, video-conferencing, internet access). The goal is to
determine the level of exposure for downtime, and to quantify
related cost factors – i.e. what are the potential costs associated
with systems repair, replacement and related operational losses?  To complete
this analysis, you must understand how a given system is used, and
its value within the organization considering the following
parameters:

• Revenue – Is the system directly involved in revenue generation, i.e.
  e-commerce?
• Operations –  What internal operations does this system support?
• Productivity – How is this system used to increase internal productivity?
• Customer Relationships – What role does this system play in the service
  of external customers?
• Regulatory Requirements – How does this system help us to meet regulatory
  requirements?

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How to Define the Soft Costs of Downtime

When it comes to IT related downtime, soft costs are all about
productivity consequences and “lost opportunity”.  Downtime costs extend beyond
dollars and cents, into the intangible
realm of workplace productivity. Considering the potential sensitivities involved,
downtime can become quite personal (“I can’t get my work done because
of you and your systems”, or “My customer is mad at me because of you
and your systems”).  As such, downtime can have a serious and
negative impact on one or more of the following:

• Downtime can diminish the level of credibility and trust in
  the IT department.
• Downtime can damage the viability of the long term
  IT/end-user relationship.
• Downtime can lead to lost productivity and create a need to
  re-do work already performed.
• Downtime can cause IT staff to lose confidence in
  themselves, their organizational mission and will lead to
  diminished organizational morale.
• Downtime can lead to ineffective work procedures believed
  necessary due to a lack of confidence in existing systems.
• Downtime can make it more difficult to realize the
  strategic IT management
  vision.

Downtime Costs and IT Strategic Planning

Once you can identify the costs of downtime, contrasted with the
costs of downtime management, you will be in a position to weigh overall
costs and benefits. The driving force is the assumption that downtime
is costly and unproductive and should be avoided to the extent possible
and practical.  The question is… what is “possible and practical”?

The answer will vary by organization, circumstance, and even by individual
system. To find your “possible and practical” solutions you will need
to weigh individual downtime consequences against viable management
solutions, looking to find the right balance between cost and benefit. Obviously,
IT must take advantage of all available “best practices” to ensure that
technology is properly installed and maintained. But, fully redundant
hardware systems, while theoretically desirable, may not be cost justified
under all situations.

Steps and strategies taken to prevent and mitigate downtime must be
sufficiently targeted
(relevant to business needs and downtime costs), realistic (you must
have the staff and the resources to make it happen), and effective (it
has to get the job done). As costly as downtime may be, the costs of
false expectations and unfulfilled promises may go beyond actual measurement.
That said, downtime should be prevented to the extent possible and practical,
and all related management practices, including
disaster recovery planning and proactive problem
management, should be made an regular part of your
IT management program
and related strategic vision.

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