Global Switch Reports on Downtime

LONDON -- Global Switch, a leading provider of purpose-built high-specification data centres, has today released findings from a pan-European survey, revealing that IT downtime costs European businesses on average 300K per hour. Surprisingly almost half (47%) of these businesses still house their mission-critical IT infrastructure in their own offices rather than mitigating this risk by using a fit-for-purpose environment.

50% of business service providers claim that one hour of downtime could incur costs of between £501,000 and £1million. Financial institutions follow close behind, with 23% predicting costs of between £51,000 and £100,000 and a further 18% estimating costs in the region of £101,000 to £500,000. This sector shows the most conscientious approach to business continuity planning, and boasts the highest usage of fit-for-purpose IT environments, which satisfy the cooling and power requirements of new technologies, while also offering maximum physical protection.

In contrast, other sectors questioned about IT downtime expressed less concern and take fewer precautions. 62% of pharmaceutical companies house their IT infrastructure within their own offices - as do 55% of online businesses. This latter revelation is particularly surprising given the fact that, for online businesses, just one hour of down time could cripple the entire organisation and equate to hundreds, if not thousands of pounds in lost revenue.

Paul van der Hilst, European Director Global Switch, comments, "With the cost of downtime averaging £300K per hour, companies across Europe must wake up and start recognising the importance of protecting their IT infrastructure against potential downtime. Although there are strong results from certain industry sectors and markets which indicates a high awareness of the impact that IT downtime can have, almost half of European businesses are still putting their corporate data at risk. IT directors should place greater importance on the physical environment in which they choose to locate their mission-critical IT infrastructure in order to mitigate risk and avoid costly repercussions."

Global Switch