Infrastructure Slideshow: Network Disruptions: A Billion-Dollar Headache

While more than eight in 10 CIOs and other IT executives say they have solid plans to keep their enterprise infrastructure running in the event of a major network disruption, these plans fall short when an actual outage occurs. This according to the CDW Business Continuity Report. The report is based on a survey of some 200 IT managers in the U.S. conducted by technology solutions provider CDW. The report reveals that enterprises polled are routinely experiencing network outages lasting more than four hours. The study estimates that U.S. businesses, collectively, lost $1.7 billion in profits last year as a result of network disruptions that lasted four hours or more. "The data and communications network is the foundation of most businesses today," says Jeff Godlewski, a CDW technology specialist who helped compile the report. "Damage it, and the business is temporarily crippled - or worse. Most businesses take measures to protect themselves from a network outage but still face disruptions for myriad reasons - loss of power, loss of telecom services, cyber-security attacks, natural disasters and more." And, even while a large majority of senior IT managers feel that improving their business continuity/disaster recovery resources would improve the situation, only a clear minority actually plan to launch such an effort. Here are more revealing findings: