Server failure is increasingly costly for organizations, given their growing reliance on IT infrastructure to support data-intensive workflows, applications and services. A recent report found that healthcare providers lose thousands of dollars per minute during a data center outage, illustrating the high stakes of securing IT systems with versatile software solutions. Higher education institutions have also become frustrated with similar server issues that have caused delays in test administration.
Data center outages especially costly for healthcare providers
Across all of their operations, healthcare providers depend on fast, reliable access to data about patients, finances and IT systems, much of which may be stored in an on-site data center or managed remotely in a cloud. In this context, a data center outage results in not only a hefty bill, but a serious disruption to patient care.
How much does an outage cost? This year, just one incident will run a provider nearly $700,000, or almost $8,000 per minute, and larger organizations may end up losing more than $1 million following unplanned downtime. These figures are up 41 percent from only three years ago, underscoring the growing complexity and centrality of IT operations in the healthcare sector.
The average organization experiences two complete data center outages each year, but significantly more – 11 – individual server failures. Causes run the gamut from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and uninterruptable power supply failures to human error and adverse weather.
Hospitals and facilities can prepare themselves with restore software that provides protection from rootkits, unauthorized access and system crashes. Moreover, administrators can retain user and application data even after the device is rebooted by utilizing non-system and network drives. With a centralized console that can manage software across the entire hospital, IT departments can stay on top of potential issues and granularly control a wide range of endpoints.
Education institutions also hit by server failure
Hospitals aren’t alone in their frustrations with IT outages. Students and educators at a Louisiana university recently ran into trouble when outdated software triggered a server failure. Tests intended for hundreds of students had to be rescheduled.
The software in question was nearly seven years old and no longer actively supported by the developer. While no student work was lost, the incident illustrates how difficult it can be to manage or update mission-critical software.
However, institutions can utilize a server restore software that helps maintain server consistency by freezing your servers’s desired configuration while protecting servers from unexpected downtime. Administrators can can learn and practice their server configuration skills without compromising the integrity of your server and causing unacceptable downtime.
