THE COLD, HArD FACTS ABOUT UPTIME

The Cold, Hard Facts
About Uptime
365 Data Centers © 2016
Executive Summary
By the year 2020, when the Internet of Things is in full swing
and Internet-connected devices and data are as important as
electricity, data center uptime is expected to be the top priority.1
Even today, ensuring the uptime of mission-critical applications
has never been more important. Enterprises depend on third-party
service provider infrastructure services to keep their businesses
going. An in-depth Infonetics Research survey found that companies
were losing as much as $100 million per year to downtime.2 Although
the consequences of outages vary by industry, organizations agree that recouping lost revenue
and rebuilding corporate reputation can be difficult. While natural disasters and equipment failures
cannot be avoided, their impact on downtime can be mitigated through planning and automation.
Let’s examine the cold hard facts of uptime.
Fact #1: The effects of downtime are expensive.
There was a time when virtualized servers and applications were used solely for non-mission-critical
environments. But now, especially with cloud computing adoption on the rise, mission-critical
applications that businesses rely on are running on virtualized environments. Leading organizations
understand that any amount of downtime can be expensive even if virtualization offers some builtin protections against it.
According to an Infonetics’ survey,2 the most common causes of downtime are:
human error,
equipment failure,
software and third-party services, and
power outages.
Organizations reported that they experienced an average of 2 outages and 4 degradations per
month, lasting for about 6 hours for each event. These factors have caused companies to lose as
much as $100 million per year to downtime. Unplanned downtime is as much a business issue as it is
an IT issue; it never produces revenue for the companies experiencing it.
“
“
Fixing the downtime issue is the smallest cost component. The real cost is the toll downtime takes on employee productivity
and company revenue, illustrating the criticality of ICT infrastructure in the day-to-day operations of an organization.
Matthias Machowinski, Directing Analyst for Enterprise Networks and Video,
Infonetics Research, 20152
1 http://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/news/4500256105/Data-center-uptime-pressure-mounts-as-IoT-takes-hold
2 http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2014/Cost-Server-Application-Network-Downtime-Survey-Highlights.asp
365 Data Centers
1400 65th Street, Suite 230
Emeryville, CA 94608
365 Data Centers © 2016
Phone:877-365-6246
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In another survey, IDC3 examined the annual impact of application downtime across Fortune 1000
organizations. IDC found that:
The average total cost of unplanned application downtime per year is $1.25 billion to $2.5 billion.
The average hourly cost of an infrastructure failure is $100,000 per hour.
The average cost of a critical application failure per hour is $500,000 to $1 million.
Reputation and loyalty
The biggest cost of downtime is how it affects customer satisfaction. Would you still have
your customers’ loyalty after recovering from the unplanned downtime?
Employee productivity
Morale is challenged by downtime. Employees who are trying to resolve the problem will
show very high stress levels, which may result in human error.
Regulatory and contract compliance
Substantial penalties and fines can be imposed if you fail to fulfill the conditions of an SLA.
It is crucial to know the true cost of downtime so that organizations can determine what kind of
backup and disaster recovery investments make sense for its business.
As data centers continue to evolve to support businesses and organizations that are becoming more social, mobile, and
cloud-based, there is an increasing need for a growing number of companies and organizations to make it a priority to
minimize the risk of downtime and commit the necessary investment in infrastructure technology and resource.
Peter Panfil, Vice President, Global Power, Emerson Network Power, 20134
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3 http://info.appdynamics.com/rs/appdynamics/images/DevOps-metrics-Fortune1K.pdf
4 http://www.emersonnetworkpower.com/en-US/About/NewsRoom/NewsReleases/Pages/Emerson-Ponemon-Cost-Unplanned-DataCenter-Outages.aspx
365 Data Centers
1400 65th Street, Suite 230
Emeryville, CA 94608
365 Data Centers © 2016
Phone:877-365-6246
[email protected]
Support and
Relationship
6%
Fact #2: Sustaining uptime
is a must.
The demand for 24/7 access to IT services and
applications is increasing. Mission-critical production
environments must be up 24 hours a day, every day
of the year. A Gartner survey reveals that availability
is the most important aspect of nearly every network.
Other system requirements like performance, scalability,
management, and agility require the network to be
always online.5
Other
2%
Performance
11%
Management,
agility and
orchestration
34%
Availability
20%
Capacity and
scability
16%
Cost
CapEX/
OpEX
12%
n=236
Source: http://blogs.gartner.com/andrew-lerner/2014/07/11/network-downtime/
Application uptime and system performance depend on a variety of factors, including:
System and application
architecture
Since more businesses are embracing
the Cloud, data centers and carriers are
constrained to re-architect their systems and
applications to keep up with their clients’
requirements.
Power availability
Power spikes, sags, and outages require
redundant critical power and cooling
components such as UPS modules, chillers or
pumps, and engine generators. It is important
to have sustained power availability for
reliability.
Hardware reliability
Uptime requires a degree of equipment
redundancy. Its requirement for a basic
server is N+1 while higher levels of
uptime requires more items of redundant
equipment (N+M).
Scalability
All of an edge data center’s facilities
should be certified to the highest industry
standards and compliance requirements.
365 maintains certificatios with HIPAA, PCI
DSS, SSAE 16, SOC 2 and ISAE 3402.
The data center has to be highly scalable and systems need to be faster every year. Ensuring uptime
is critical in providing better customer experience; as customers begin to lose their attention,
organizations risk the loss of customers, reputation, and profitability.
6 http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US40546615
365 Data Centers
1400 65th Street, Suite 230
Emeryville, CA 94608
365 Data Centers © 2016
Phone:877-365-6246
[email protected]
Fact #3: Uptime is hard to sustain.
Even with the help of modern technology, data center
operations are still hampered by sporadic and persistent
issues that demand immediate attention. Of all these issues,
unplanned downtime is the most pressing. Businesses
should ensure seamless end-user experience and line-ofbusiness operations.
As shown in the following figure, downtime is the most
common issue faced by data center operators. The
respondents cited that downtime is caused by system
failure, human error, and natural disasters.
Top Data Center Issues Experienced in Preceding 12 Months
Latency
issues
25.7%
Downtime
due to
natural
disaster
21.3%
Downtime
due to
system failure
34.2%
Downtime
due to
human error
31.9%
n=404
Note: Multiple responses were allowed.
Source IDC’s Enterprise Datacenter Survey, 4Q14
Downtime due to system failure
It’s hard to keep your operations up if you’re using an old and unstable IT infrastructure
with inadequate monitoring tools. On the other hand, an efficiently modeled data center
that needs continuous process improvement can also contribute to system failure.
Eliminating these inefficiencies in your system can greatly help in minimizing unplanned
downtime.
Downtime due to human error
The reality is that system downtime can often be correlated to human error. Data
center operators must have flawless processes and execution to ensure the systems are
maintained, repaired, tested and monitored 24/7. Oftentimes, downtime is a result of
multiple breakdowns in processes or human execution.
Downtime due to natural disasters
Natural disasters are inevitable—even if it’s “man-made” like major power grid outages.
Having a robust disaster recovery plan in place can prepare you for the inevitable.
365 Data Centers
1400 65th Street, Suite 230
Emeryville, CA 94608
365 Data Centers © 2016
Phone:877-365-6246
[email protected]
Fact #4: Sustaining 100% uptime is not mission impossible.
Maintaining 100% uptime can be achieved through detailed planning, system maintenance and
management by an experienced staff of data center professionals. While automation and systems
redundancy are important, experienced data center professionals are the most important ingredient
to maintaining uptime.6
IDC’s survey on The Problems of Downtime and Latency in the Enterprise Datacenter mentioned
these essential guides to ensure 100% uptime6:
1. Prevent system failure.
To have an efficient and reliable data center, regular monitoring and updating of critical
system infrastructure is a must. Automation and centralized monitoring solutions can also
help in preventing system failure.
2. Reduce human error.
Documenting and following standard methods and procedures is critical to maintaining
uptime. Oftentimes, data center operators will become overly dependent on systems to
maintain uptime. The reality is that more oftentimes than not, a human error is involved
in a system or process breaking down. Operators can reduce downtime by ensuring
experienced professionals are monitoring, maintaining and managing the power and
infrastructure 24/7.
3. Ensure robust disaster planning.
Having a disaster recovery plan in place for potential natural disasters and other impacting
events is critical. Being proactive, such as ensuring that backup diesel generators are
tested regularly and taking precautionary steps ahead of anticipated natural disasters can
minimize downtime.
Following this critical methodology can ensure that you stay online when crisis does strike.
Planning, automation and system redundancy are important strategies in reducing or eliminating
downtime. Managing redundant and resilient systems with an experienced technical staff can ensure
that operations are always up.
365 Data Centers
1400 65th Street, Suite 230
Emeryville, CA 94608
365 Data Centers © 2016
Phone:877-365-6246
[email protected]
Colocating with a fully redundant and compliant data
center can help.
Colocation offers services that can augment your existing system. Most colocation facilities are
designed with a resilient critical system, a redundant battery backup and cooling system, and with a
scalable infrastructure that you can take advantage of. Leading colocation sites offer 100% uptime
with the help of their robust infrastructure.
Using a combination of sophisticated systems,
state-of-the art infrastructure, processes, and
experienced technicians, 365 Data Centers has
provided 100% uptime for more than ten years.
Our facilities are highly redundant with N+1
uninterruptible power systems (UPS), automatic
transfer switches, and on-site backup generators.
With a reliable operating history, 365 Data Centers
has maintained 100% uptime through 100 power
outages, 56 lightning storms, 5 hurricanes, 563 hail
storms, and 389 floods, among other incidents.
All 14 of our colocation facilities and processes are
compliant with HIPAA, PCI, SSAE 16, and ISAE 3402.
Conclusion
These cold, hard facts about downtime demonstrate the importance and challenge
of keeping applications up and running with 100% availability. Downtime has serious
consequences and can cost businesses in lost revenue, lost customers and brand loyalty.
Colocating with a fully redundant and compliant data center can help in ensuring uptime.
Just as important as system uptime is ensuring that an experienced staff is managing
the infrastructure with tested processes and procedures. Colocation services can offer
significant savings versus building and maintaining an in-house data center. Colocating with
a reliable and secure data center provider can enhance your brand reputation, application
performance and competitive edge.
365 Data Centers
1400 65th Street, Suite 230
Emeryville, CA 94608
365 Data Centers © 2016
Phone:877-365-6246
[email protected]
References
http://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/news/4500256105/Data-center-uptime-pressure-mounts-as-IoT-takes-hold
http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2014/Cost-Server-Application-Network-Downtime-Survey-Highlights.asp
http://v1.aberdeen.com/launch/report/research_report/9350-RR-virtual-application-servers.asp
http://www.evolven.com/blog/costs-and-scope-of-unplanned-outages.html
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US40546615
http://info.appdynamics.com/rs/appdynamics/images/DevOps-metrics-Fortune1K.pdf
http://www.emersonnetworkpower.com/en-US/About/NewsRoom/NewsReleases/Pages/Emerson-Ponemon-Cost-Unplanned-DataCenter-Outages.aspx
http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/feature/Tenets-of-modern-server-uptime-and-data-center-availability
https://journal.uptimeinstitute.com/explaining-uptime-institutes-tier-classification-system/
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About 365 Data Centers
365 Data Centers is the leading data center solutions provider for cloud, content, carriers, and
enterprises in tier 2 markets. We operate 14 U.S. data centers and help hundreds of businesses
to improve user experience, reduce cost, and speed innovation by leveraging our secure, carrierneutral, and reliable edge colocation services. With 100% uptime and industry compliance, 365 Data
Centers ensures that mission-critical application infrastructure is highly available and conveniently
accessible.
For more information, visit 365datacenters.com
365 Data Centers
1400 65th Street, Suite 230
Emeryville, CA 94608
365 Data Centers © 2016
Phone:877-365-6246
[email protected]