Poor infrastructure can cost thousands

While it may not be the top concern for business operational integrity, the quality of IT and production network infrastructure can weigh heavily on the costs of operations. A recent study by the Ponemon Institute found that data center outages can cost more than $7,900 a minute. In 2010, the cost was estimated at $5,600 a minute, 41 percent less. With downtime costs rising, firms need to do everything they can to avoid them, and improving the power and network infrastructure, from cabling to media converters, can help.

"Given the fact that today's data centers support more critical, interdependent devices and IT systems than ever before, most would expect a rise in the cost of an unplanned data center outage compared to 2010. However, the 41-percent increase was higher than expected," Larry Ponemon, the Institute's chairman and founder, noted, according to Cabling Installation & Maintenance. "This increase in cost underscores the importance for organizations to make it a priority to minimize the risk of downtime that can potentially cost thousands of dollars per minute."

To further these costs, the average outage was reported to be about 86 minutes - costing nearly $690,200 per incident. Total center outages, estimated at an average of 119 minutes per incident, can cost firms up to $901,500, while partial loss of power and service average at 56 minutes - about $350,400 lost.

Emerson Network Power, the sponsor of the survey, noted that organizations that depend on the ability to deliver IT and networking services to customers, such as telecommunications or e-commerce enterprises - could incur huge losses due to even minutes of downtime. Furthermore, any firm that relies on large amounts of data for its daily operations could see losses up to $1.7 million from a single outage event.

By investing in improved media converters, serial to Ethernet converters and similar technology, businesses can take strong steps toward improving the integrity of their networks, minimizing data loss and optimizing power distribution to reduce the risk of an outage. High-quality network infrastructure technologies are essential, and firms that invest in solutions that address current and future operational needs will be better prepared for any potentiality.

Perle's serial to Ethernet converters connect serial based equipment across an Ethernet network. The Perle IOLAN range of Console Servers, Device Servers and Terminal Servers feature built-in support for IPv6 along with a broad range of authentication methods and encryption technologies.