Maybe it was a power failure, or a ransomware attack. Perhaps it was an upgrade gone wrong, or a hardware problem. A 2018 report by Information Technology Intelligence Consulting (ITIC) reckons that it’s most likely to be good old-fashioned human error. Whatever the reason, no business enjoys unplanned IT downtime, especially as we’re more reliant than ever before on our networks staying up.

As our professional and personal lives become more digital, the effect of downtime changes from minor inconvenience to major frustration, and increasing numbers of businesses recognise the need to keep their systems online at all times. Based on a survey of 800 large enterprises, ITIC says 80% demand four nines (99.99%) reliability for their mission-critical apps today, compared to 39% in 2013. A further 5% demand ‘better than five nines’. Yet at the same time, 49% of respondents haven’t calculated the cost of hourly downtime for critical and line-of-business applications.