6 Strategies for Businesses to Reduce Network Downtime
Network downtime can cause serious problems for your business, and small businesses are especially vulnerable. Fortunately, the majority of the most common causes of downtime are preventable. By evaluating your system for potential weaknesses and using proactive maintenance, you can reduce the likelihood of downtime and increase uptime.
Unplanned Downtime
Unplanned network downtime can be a costly problem for businesses. While it is not always possible to completely prevent downtime, proactively addressing it can save businesses thousands of dollars and restore operations to a normal state. If your company is using the internet for business, one way to prevent unplanned downtime is to implement ITIL’s best practices.
Unplanned downtime is usually caused by human error and hardware failure. Common causes include unplugging necessary hardware or following outdated procedures. Built-in redundancies are ideal for reducing the risk of hardware failure. In addition, you can reduce the risk of an outage by testing your network regularly.
Human Error
Human error is one of the biggest reasons for business network downtime. This can be caused by negligence or accidental mistakes made by employees. This error is costly and can be reduced by regularly training employees. In addition, outdated hardware or software can cause a system outage. Furthermore, applying patches to an application without testing it first can corrupt the entire application. Therefore, business owners must take steps to prevent downtime and prevent employees from making these mistakes.
Keeping a network up and running requires a coordinated team effort. The best way to minimize network downtime and human error is by hiring a network operations center (NOC). These companies specialize in network management and offer a variety of benefits.
Router Failures
The most common reasons for network downtime are human error and hardware failure. Businesses rely on their IT departments to keep their networks up and running around the clock. However, many network failures happen outside of normal business hours. In these situations, it is critical to have a plan in place for a successful recovery.
Network downtime can cost a business thousands of dollars. It impacts productivity, disrupts business services, and causes headaches for IT departments.
Internet Service Provider Problems
Downtime can result from various factors, including the failure of a connection from a business to an ISP. For instance, a routing error can prevent a business from connecting to its ISP, or a storm could cause damage to the wiring. Whether a technical problem or a human-made disaster, downtime can be detrimental to a business. Regardless of the outage, businesses need to plan for such a possibility and make backup arrangements in case of problems.
Downtime can cost a business many ways, including lost revenue and customer dissatisfaction. Additionally, if a network fails to function, employees may not be able to perform their jobs properly. Again, this can cost businesses millions of dollars.
Upgraded Equipment
The first step in avoiding network downtime for businesses is ensuring your network is up-to-date. Many factors can cause downtime, including hardware and software failure. It is also wise to perform network upgrades when employees are not using the network. In addition to updating equipment, you should also consider your network type. While cheaper equipment may save you money in the short term, it may not be able to handle unexpected network downtime.
Investing in new equipment can help avoid downtime, as older equipment is more likely to fail. In addition, outdated equipment is less likely to run sophisticated software and could cause system crashes. Finally, regular inventory is a great way to minimize network downtime.
Backup Connections
A backup connection can prevent network downtime for businesses and is essential to ensure uninterrupted productivity. Internet downtime is costly for businesses. It can cost upwards of $700 billion annually in lost revenue and reduce employee productivity. An internet redundancy or backup service can minimize downtime and protect the business from damage.
If a business suffers from network downtime, it is important to identify the cause of the problem. It may be a blown fuse or an internal issue. If it is an external issue, such as a faulty power line, a backup connection can bridge the gap until the primary network is fixed.