Businesses count the cost of network downtime

Fewer than one in ten CIOs can claim that they have avoided a network outage, according to Opengear.

This finding is among new research by Opengear of both CIOs and network engineers globally. The scale and frequency of network outages is revealed by 91% of CIOs stating that they experience downtime at least once a quarter.

Costs and capabilities

Further survey statistics reveal that network downtime has a significant financial impact for businesses. Figures show that in the US for each minute of disruption, 24% of organizations lose between $2,501 and $5,000. As an average, this figure equates to $4,344 for every minute of downtime incurred.

Due to continued network outages and rising economic pressures, 79% of US CIOs now say it’s harder to meet customer expectations in today’s environment, a concern also reflected by 68% of US network engineers.

While the economic climate is presenting unprecedented restrictions and strains to budgets, continued investment in the network is a necessity for resilience.

92% of US CIOs have therefore increased their budget over the last 12 months to improve their network resilience, with almost half (44%) dedicating over 50% of their IT budget to infrastructure spend in order to secure their operations.

Resolving issues to increase network resilience

To help overcome the range of challenges that organizations are facing when it comes to increasing network resilience today, technology can make all the difference. In fact, 61% of CIOs (46% globally) identify investment in automation, AI or other emerging technologies as critical to addressing the tech skills shortage in the industry. 62% of engineers (43% globally) agree with this sentiment.

“Our research findings lay bare the challenges that organizations globally are facing with network outages in 2023,” said Gary Marks, President at Opengear.

“It’s perhaps unsurprising that CIOs are allocating more investment to network resiliency to ensure that downtime doesn’t occur. The key is where this investment is being targeted. From critical first day deployments and everyday maintenance, to worst day scenarios such as network outages, organizations need always-on access to their critical resources to ensure business continuity. Technologies can enable remediation of network issues from any location, helping to reinforce business resilience in a difficult economic climate,” Marks concluded.