Downtime is a business killer. As discussed in an earlier post, it not only hurts revenue but can also damage your brand, impact employee productivity, and weaken customer and employee confidence.
A recent IDC Multi-Client Study, The Cost of Downtime and the Value of Support Contracts, provides additional context on the issue. It showed that IT downtime costs organizations in terms of financial measures, employee satisfaction, lost productivity, and social reputation. Not surprisingly, most organizations are working to decrease downtime.
Even more interesting, the IDC survey reports that having a support contract can save organizations up to 167 hours of downtime per year for IT storage systems*.
IDC recommends, “When undertaking initiatives to reduce unplanned downtime in the IT environment, CIOs and IT directors should focus on the relationship of IT resources to the business, and the business processes supported by the systems and resources in use.”
Having a support contract can save you up to 167 hours of downtime per year.IDC
That all makes sense in theory. But how exactly do IT organizations develop those measures and insights in a practical way? It’s a question that we often hear from IT teams. And, more important: How should they use those insights when deciding on the investments needed to improve IT operations, especially to reduce downtime?
To answer these very practical questions, Pure Storage Advanced Services has developed the Assessment and Optimization Workshop. It provides a structured, defined-scope, joint process to develop recommendations and goals for your IT storage systems. Using that information, our team leverages Pure’s global experience to identify a plan for growth and increasing return on investment for storage initiatives, including ways to reduce downtime.
The workshop starts with a joint meeting between your experts and ours. In the meeting, the joint team performs a site survey to understand your storage management needs, challenges, and vision. Next, the Pure team reviews and documents your storage infrastructure, application, and data requirements. Pure then assesses your current storage environment against your needs to identify coverage gaps. That assessment utilizes methods and tools that Pure has developed through our work with IT organizations around the world. Finally, the Pure team presents its findings and makes practical recommendations focused on your IT environment and goals.
The findings and recommendations in the final report include:
- Information on storage usage and growth forecasts
- Strategies and tactics to reduce risk and improve stability and business continuity
- Plans to optimize performance, including reducing downtime
- Recommendations to accelerate technology adoption and increase agility
- Changes to business and operational process to increase efficiency
- Insights on deploying automation solutions to reduce management overhead
The feedback from participants is that the joint team goes deeper and uncovers more than either team could have separately. And the result is that the data and insights developed are focused, practical, and useful. The Assessment and Optimization Workshop is an effective way to make sure that your IT investments actually accomplish the goals that you’ve set for them.
If you and your team are considering plans and tactics to reduce downtime or increase the ROI for storage systems, maybe it’s the right time to call in Pure Advanced Services and utilize the Assessment and Optimization Workshop.
Reference: IDC Multi-Client Study, The Cost of Downtime and the Value of Support Contracts, Figure 4.
*Hours of downtime may vary due to the specifics of the network.
