Lately we’re hearing more and more about employee mobility trends and continuously accessible unified communications systems, about high-availability servers and the importance of staying connected at all times. So why is it such a big deal? Well, for one thing, the world has evolved into one huge marketplace where everyone seems to be on the move, and having answers and information at our fingertips, 24/7, has become an absolute necessity – or else!
With the growing need for employees to be able to access their work and collaborate with co-workers wherever they are, and at any time, unified communications applications are now commonplace. In fact, UC has become such a primary business concern that 56 percent of enterprise organizations recently surveyed by IDG Enterprise plan to upgrade or install new UC solutions within the next year, and 66 percent of small and medium sized businesses are also actively planning for upcoming UC improvements.
What’s driving the increase in UC investments?
With the increasing mobility of workforces today and a growing number of remote workers, it’s not surprising that the IDG Enterprise survey also reveals that 43 percent of the organizations reported their UC improvements were driven by the need for improved collaboration between their employees. The ability to resolve issues quickly, to share information, the immediacy of creative brainstorming and collaborative problem solving; these are some of the benefits of these powerful communication tools.
Similarly, 33 percent of the companies specifically attributed the upcoming upgrading of their UC to their need for increased flexibility for onsite employees and for mobile personnel. Enabling their employees to work from anywhere, and at any time, and to access and know when a co-worker is available and be able to quickly connect, these capabilities have serious value to businesses across all industries.
One of the top motivators for improving their UC was evident in the 42 percent of organizations who plan to install or upgrade for reasons of increasing their overall productivity—gaining the efficiency that results from streamlined operations and the immediate information share between departments and personnel.
What is High Availability anyway?
What does high availability of your unified communications have to do with the success or failure of an organization? Why is it so critical? Well, let’s look at what this term actually means.
*Gary Audin states that in the world of IT, the term High Availability refers to “a system or component that is continuously operational for a long length of time.” To repeat, that means constantly working, without any breaks or downtime, providing unified communications that are “continuously operational.”
Usually the ability of an employee to effectively do their job requires them to access the system to submit or alter their work. If the user cannot access the system, then it is termed “unavailable.” This kind of downtime impairs productivity, and causes workflow inefficiency and lost revenue. It has become critical for the UC system of any sized organization to be immediately accessible, with no disturbances or interruptions, for optimal business continuity.
What are some risks of being without a High Availability UC solution?
Your unified communications is mission critical, and accessibility is the very lifeblood of a successful organization, however these investments can suffer outages if not on a high availability infrastructure. Without reliable redundancy and back up, you risk your people and your customers being cut off from information, workers from the workflow, and everyone from collaboration with each other. The loss of UC, for even a few hours, can mean a substantial loss to an enterprise.
What kind of losses are we talking about here? When your infrastructure fails for any length of time, along with lost productivity that obviously impacts revenue, businesses suffer the sharp decreases in customer satisfaction levels, the number of business relationships and customers lost, a damaged reputation, and the high costs of recovering that reputation.
In fact, the Ponemon Institute reported some interesting 2016 average costs associated with system outages:
- Business Disruption – $256,000
- Lost Revenue – $209,000
- End-User Productivity – $138,000
- IT Productivity – $62,000
In Conclusion
So what is the big deal about High Availability UC? It becomes evident that the risk of incurring some of the losses that accompany broken communications and business disruption can become a very big deal. For Smart Enterprises, UC has become a major focus for their strategic budget planning because it is a very big part of the success of their organization, and a critical factor for future growth.
Question: Do you have a true High Availability infrastructure that provides 99.999% UC reliability and prevents these kind of business disruption losses?
To learn more, download our Smart Enterprise eBook called “Achieving High Availability in UC” by industry expert, Gary Audin. This eBook takes a comprehensive look at UC and the importance of system availability plus examines the key components needed to build and sustain a UC-enabled environment.
(*Gary Audin has more than 40+ years of experience in computer, communications and security consulting and implementation, and is a well-known author of over 1000 blogs, articles, podcasts, white papers and webinars. Our quote is from the “Achieving High Availability in UC” ebook.)
Free Ebook:
Achieving High Availability in UC
This eBook by communications and security consultant Gary Audin, president of Delphi, Inc., takes a comprehensive look at UC and the importance of system availability. Also examined in-depth are the components needed to put together and sustain a UC-enabled communications environment.
