Network outage downtime is more than a pesky inconvenience for your business – a business network outage can seriously cost you. In a 2021 survey from Information Technology Intelligence Consulting, 91% of respondents estimate that one hour of downtime costs their firm $301,000 or more. 44% of those polled indicated that hourly downtime costs now exceed $1 million.
Many different things can take your network offline or slow your Internet speeds. These can include issues with network devices, power outages, human errors, network failure or congestion, and even weather events including natural disasters.
Effects of internet downtime include a decreased ability to perform basic business operations like scanning inventory in your stores, processing online orders, making internal software updates, and communicating with out-of-office employees.
For businesses without a large IT department, what should be a short outage could easily turn into days or weeks. Here are just a few possible effects of a network outage on your business:
1. Lost Revenue
When your network is down, your business is down. Customers can’t check out, contact support, or utilize your services. You may not be able to send invoices, process credit card payments, or communicate with your customers to let them know something is wrong. This may leave them to look to a different company for a solution.
Research from Digital.com indicates that 50% of customers will abandon their shopping carts if web pages don’t load in six seconds. What are the odds that customers wait hours or days for your business to get back up and running? The chances are they won’t. It isn’t worth it to risk losing customers and sales because of an unexpected outage.
2. Your Site Could Be Taken Hostage
No matter the size of your business, you could be at risk of a cyberattack as bad actors try to benefit from vulnerable systems. Hackers have become more sophisticated. They can easily take down your network and hold it hostage for ransom if you aren’t adequately protected.
Since the start of the pandemic, DDoS attacks alone have increased by 341% costing businesses around $30,000 hourly. What’s more, these attackers tend to target their victims during business hours, when their attacks are more impactful.
Additionally, unplanned network downtime due to cyberattacks can lead to permanent data losses, making recovering that information nearly impossible.
3. Damaged Reputation
Network outages can cause customers to think your business is unreliable. If customers can’t contact support or schedule appointments, they can’t rely on you to provide the services when they need them most. Don’t let an unreliable network affect how customers view your business.
4. Lost Productivity
While your IT department spends time trying to get your network back up, your company could be wasting valuable time otherwise spent working on mission-critical tasks. With an outage, you aren’t able to update software, operate your CRMs, analyze and send data, support customers, or perform any other business function that requires the Internet. You likely won’t even be able to contact your employees to coordinate a plan to get you back online.
5. SLA Penalties
Many companies guarantee that their network or services will be available for a certain amount of time every year. If there are unforeseen outages, your company may be liable for payments or compensation for customers’ lost time. Slack, for example, guarantees 99.99% uptime for their customers, offering service credits if they don’t uphold that standard.
Keep Network Outages at Bay with Zayo
Don’t let network downtime from outages negatively affect your business. Make sure your network infrastructure is prepared for potential issues with high-speed Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), cybersecurity, and a team of experts to help manage your network.
Zayo for Business provides reliable, dedicated, and secure Internet bundles for companies in Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Seattle, and Toronto. We provide everything you need to stay online and prevent pesky outages. We have real-time network management and localized support to troubleshoot your network whenever you need us.