Did you ever take time to noodle out the cost of network downtime? We have…and it may shock you!
Last week, Hurricane Dorian threatened to shut down a lot of businesses along the southeastern coast, but that’s not the only kind of disaster that can occur. A simple lightning strike, a fire, a flood, thievery, ransomware attacks…the list goes on and on.
Now, math has never been one of my favorite subjects, but here goes:
If you agree that there are 2,080 work/production hours in a year and look at it from a pure revenue standpoint, that means for every hour lost on $1M in sales volume, a business stands to lose $480. Here’s how that adds up:
$5M business loses $2,400 per hour
$10M business loses $4,800 per hour
$50M business loses $24,000 and so on
Looking at it from a employee payroll cost standpoint, the average business has 10 employees for every $1M in sales revenue. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median wage in 2019 is now $22.50 per hour. So, a $1M business would lose $225 per hour in payroll costs. Here’s how that adds up:
$5M business loses $1,125 per hour
$10M business loses $2,250 per hour
$50M business loses $11,250 and so on
Please remember this is just the cost per hour. What if you are down for a day or two? That’s a very real scenario!
Now, we know these are raw numbers and you may not lose ALL employee production or sales revenues due to a server or network outage, but even a fraction of the cost can be huge.
So, here’s the bottom line: How much downtime can you afford? 2 days? 1 day? A few hours?
The good news is that, today, you have a lot of options when it comes to disaster recovery. And, given the numbers above, they really don’t cost all that much, in comparison. Just think about it: you could have a replicated server, sitting offsite, ready and waiting. You could be back in business in less than an hour!
So, why don’t more businesses have a solid disaster recovery plan in place? It’s simple…they just don’t think it will ever happen to them. So, in the famous words of Dirty (Clint Eastwood) Harry, I’ve just got one question for you: Do you feel lucky?
If you don’t want to be caught unprepared, just let us know and we can figure out what the best plan would be for your business, budget and needs.
Meanwhile, let’s all hope this hurricane stays offshore, keeps weakening and doesn’t wind up being that big a problem for the folks along the coast.
