Power Protection FEATURED ARTICLE

Telecommunications company Airtel (News - Alert) did not have a fortuitous start to 2012 as a fire broke out at its Mumbai data center last month, resulting in the shutdown of servers used to route calls in the region.  The bout of downtime created a network outage and disrupted mobile services for many of the company’s customers for several hours.

The outage – which was caused by a short circuit – left Airtel’s Western region down including Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.

"There was a network outage in the Western region this morning as a result of a fire in our central POP (point of presence) location in Malad, Mumbai. Our teams have been working since morning to normalize all affected services,” Airtel said the day of the outage.

About 17 percent of Airtel’s entire customer base was located in the affected region as Chhattisgarh and Gujarat were the only two states in the Western region not affected by the outage. Thanks to the outage, the company’s data services, particularly data services to many corporate customers in the region, were hit hardest.

Any business who has experienced downtime knows that the consequences can be catastrophic. From lost business deals to increased pressure on IT teams to resolve the issue to the headaches that ensue when you can’t get back up, downtime can oftentimes be a company’s worst nightmare. However, some companies might not fully fathom the disastrousness of downtime.

Specifically, a recent survey from Stratus Technologies (News - Alert) and ITIC Corporation finds that more than half of the businesses (52 percent) do not know the potential financial impact of IT downtime and the impact it can have on their bottom line and reputation.

The survey also revealed that although 48 percent of companies currently calculate the cost of IT downtime, most of them still drastically underestimate the actual costs of outages, the ensuing remediation efforts, customer dissatisfaction, and the increased potential of litigation. For example, 35 percent of survey respondents believe that one-hour of downtime for their most business critical applications will cost their company $25,000 or less, which shows they are underestimating the adverse impact that IT downtime can have on their entire businesses.

One company that understands fully the consequences of downtime is Minuteman UPS/Para Systems (News - Alert), a provider of power protection technologies. Recently, Minuteman sat down with TMCnet to debunk some of the most common misconceptions about the power protection industry. From companies and individuals proclaiming “It could never happen to me” with regards to extended power outages, to others bemoaning the misconception that power protection units cost a hefty bundle, the power supply industry is rife with fallacies.

“Business owners and administrators often feel that power protection is not cost-effective, or choose to believe that power problems will happen only to others and not them,” Duston Nixon, marketing communications specialist for Minuteman UPS/Para Systems, told TMCnet. “When the facts are presented, however, it becomes apparent that a complete power protection system is a worthwhile investment that will prevent headaches for years to come.”

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