7 Ways Companies Can Prevent IT Outages
IT Risks
July 24, 2024
An IT outage is not just an inconvenience – it can be crippling and costly for businesses and organizations. An utmost priority for any business is to provide uninterrupted service to its customers and employees. In recent years, disruptive IT outages have become increasingly common, especially in countries like the USA.
Why do IT Outages Occur?
Did you know the cost of IT outages in North America alone is $700 billion a year, impacting businesses, airports, and essential services as well? These IT outages can be caused by failed software updates, hardware issues, network problems, and cybersecurity threats, leading to financial losses and reputational damage. To maintain operations and customer satisfaction, IT outages must be prevented to preserve stakeholder and client relationships.
The primary reason behind these outages varies from software to country, but it isn’t a new thing. For instance, a software bug caused the British Airways website to crash in 2018, leading to 2,000 flights being canceled and a loss of over $100 million. On July 19, 2024, major airlines, medical facilities, businesses, and police forces worldwide experienced a massive IT glitch. The issue was caused by a routine software update gone wrong, rather than a cyberattack. This led to widespread disruptions, with Microsoft computers displaying the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death.”
While CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm, provided an automatic fix for some computers, manual restarts resulted in significant delays. Even though Starbucks locations in New York could resume normal operations, their mobile order-ahead feature remained offline. This event emphasizes the critical need for strong IT risk management practices and the potential consequences of even minor system updates.
Here is a comprehensive guide on how to develop a risk management strategy.
Ways to Prevent IT Outages
1. Update Management Approach
One of the most crucial steps in preventing IT outages is by ensuring your software updates are managed effectively. For example, having a system to test updates in a staging environment before pushing them live can help identify any potential issues before they cause an outage. Organizations need a rigorous process for handling updates to minimize disruptions and prevent maximum damage. For example, companies like Netflix use “canary releases,” which means they first test updates with a small group of users and then roll them out to the public. It’s also helpful to schedule updates during low-traffic times to avoid disrupting operations.
2. Enhanced Monitoring
It is crucial to monitor things to identify any potential issues before they become disruptive. Most organizations ignore minor bugs in their updates, believing they won’t cause problems. However, it is important to note that minor bugs can lead to more significant issues in the future. For instance, a minor bug in a software update could lead to a security breach, allowing unauthorized access to confidential data. Using effective vulnerability management tools for monitoring can give you information about how your systems are performing, how much traffic your network is getting, and how your applications are behaving. These tools can also send quick alerts for a timely response.
3. Disaster Recovery Plan
Organizations must have a solid disaster recovery plan in place to reduce downtime during an IT outage. This plan should cover data backup, system restoration, and communication procedures during a crisis. Moreover, regular testing and updates are necessary to keep the plan practical and relevant for a bulletproof system. For example, Netflix uses its Chaos Monkey tool to simulate failures and test its disaster recovery processes. Additionally, investing in redundant systems and backup infrastructure can provide a safety net, allowing organizations to maintain operations even if primary systems fail.
4. Ensuring Future Resilience
To ensure long-term reliability, it is essential that organizations prioritize building resilience in IT systems. This means designing systems with redundancy, failover mechanisms, and scalability in mind. For example, organizations should ensure they have enough storage space for data backups and enough bandwidth for data replication. Using a modular architecture allows for easier upgrades and maintenance without disrupting operations. For instance, Spotify employs a microservices architecture to ensure system resilience. By integrating cybersecurity best practices into the design and development phases, resilience can be further enhanced.
5. Regular Drills and Testing
One of the most crucial steps to prevent IT outages is regular drills and tests, as they ensure preparedness and minimize downtime. Simulating different outage scenarios allows organizations to assess their response capabilities and pinpoint areas for improvement. These drills provide a unified and effective response by engaging all relevant teams. For instance, Microsoft regularly conducts “mock” outages to assess its systems and teams. It is crucial to test backup systems and recovery procedures consistently to ensure reliability. By continuously practicing and refining response strategies, organizations can foster confidence and resilience, lessening the impact of future outages.
You may also like to read our blog post on penetration testing using red teams and blue teams.
6. Keeping Stakeholders Informed
It’s imperative to maintain effective communication with stakeholders during an IT outage. Establishing clear communication channels and informing stakeholders about protocols and updates can achieve transparency and timely updates. For example, companies like Slack provide regular updates through status pages and social media during an outage. Involving key stakeholders in decision-making processes can also improve understanding and support by providing regular status updates and estimated recovery times.
7. Third-Party Vendor Management
It is also critical l for organizations to effectively manage third-party vendors to prevent IT outages caused by external dependencies. Organizations must conduct thorough due diligence when choosing vendors to ensure they meet high reliability and security standards. For instance, a bank may insist that its third-party payment processors undergo regular security audits and provide guarantees of uptime. Learn more about IntegrityShield, our vendor risk management tool.
Preventing IT outages requires a proactive approach, including update management, enhanced monitoring, and effective communication. By investing in these preventive measures, organizations can protect their systems, protect their reputations, and provide uninterrupted services to their clients and stakeholders.