NETWORK OUTAGES SURGE GLOBALLY, COSTING BUSINESSES MILLIONS - OPENGEAR

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 (Bernama) -- Nearly nine in 10 organisations have reported an increase in network outages over the past two years, with more than a quarter recording a rise of between 25 per cent and 50 per cent, according to new research by Opengear.

According to the Digi International company in a statement, the study revealed that more than one-third of businesses incurred costs of between US$1 million and US$5 million due to outages in the past year alone. (US$1=RM4.21)

Over half of the respondents also observed a 10 per cent to 24 per cent increase in outages within the same two-year period.

Opengear President and General Manager, Patrick Quirk said outages are occurring more frequently, with rising costs and significant impact on businesses.

“Complexity, ageing infrastructure, human error and cyberattacks are all part of the problem. Governments are also introducing policies to protect critical digital infrastructure,” he said.

Quirk added that forward-looking businesses are rethinking strategies to build resilience, with decentralisation emerging as a key shift by moving workloads closer to where data is generated and consumed.

The survey, which involved more than 1,000 chief information officers, chief security officers and network engineers across the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany and Australia, aimed to identify key challenges affecting data centre operations.

Among the leading causes of outages were device configuration changes, cited by 27 per cent of network engineers, and server hardware failures, referenced by 26 per cent of respondents.

To address these risks, 32 per cent of organisations have invested in artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to support data centre operations, while 30 per cent plan to increase spending on out-of-band (OOB) management solutions within the next five years.

The research further showed that 28 per cent of organisations expect edge computing and distributed networks to significantly shape data centre management in the next five years, reflecting the growing trend toward decentralisation in network architecture.

-- BERNAMA