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Major Incident Management: Are You Prepared?

Troy McAlpin

If your critical business applications go down, or even run below peak level, your business pays a tremendous price. When a major IT incident occurs, engaging the right people quickly to restore service and manage communications is crucial. No big news flash there.

However I have to admit I was pretty alarmed when a new survey by Dimensional Research revealed an almost cavalier approach toward the handling of major IT incidents. Security and business incidents occur so regularly that we aren't even surprised anymore when they happen. They come in the form of data breaches, malware attacks, power outages, intermittent service availability and performance degradation to name a few.

Click here to see infographic below

In fact, according to the survey, 68 percent of companies surveyed experienced a major incident at least several times a year. For larger organizations with at least 5,000 employees, that figure rises to more than 90 percent.

The Consequences of Slow Response

Rapid, effective response can limit the damage. In a separate survey performed by Dimensional Research in April, 60 percent said finding and engaging the right person takes more than 15 minutes. But before 15 minutes have elapsed, almost half (45 percent) said the business has already started to suffer.

And the suffering is real, according to the most recent survey. A large majority (82 percent) says application downtime affects revenue. According to a 2014 study by industry analyst firm IDC, the average cost of a critical application failure per hour is $500,000 to $1 million.

Given how quickly, seriously and frequently a major incident affects businesses, why aren't they making critical investments in major incident management?

Money and Resources

First, a best-in-class intelligent communication platform is not cheap. So organizations that still view major incidents as unlikely events could be put off just by the cost.

Another factor is resources. Barely half of companies in the new survey (52 percent) have a major incident team. Only 44 percent of those companies have team members who are dedicated solely to major incident management.

Finally, maybe the word hasn't gotten out to all companies just how important rapid and effective major incident management is.

Is the Status Quo Working?

The effectiveness of current practices is not entirely clear because only 68 percent of companies even specify target times for resolving major incidents. But among those that are, the results are not good.

More than three-quarters of respondents, 76 percent, miss their target times sometimes or often. Most companies in the survey (58 percent) have target times between 30-90 minutes. Remember the IDC figure of up to $1 million per hour of application downtime? Do the math.

So What Have We Learned?

Regardless of why more companies haven't created processes and implemented solutions for resolving major incidents, the current state of affairs is troubling. And this article has only touched on the financial implications of major incidents. Business also suffer from reputational damage, loss of customer loyalty and trust, and sanctions from regulatory bodies.

Major incidents happen frequently, and every business should assume that sooner or later it will experience one. The ability to quickly, efficiently and effectively respond could save the business, its shareholders, its customers and partners.

Are you prepared?



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Major Incident Management: Are You Prepared?

Troy McAlpin

If your critical business applications go down, or even run below peak level, your business pays a tremendous price. When a major IT incident occurs, engaging the right people quickly to restore service and manage communications is crucial. No big news flash there.

However I have to admit I was pretty alarmed when a new survey by Dimensional Research revealed an almost cavalier approach toward the handling of major IT incidents. Security and business incidents occur so regularly that we aren't even surprised anymore when they happen. They come in the form of data breaches, malware attacks, power outages, intermittent service availability and performance degradation to name a few.

Click here to see infographic below

In fact, according to the survey, 68 percent of companies surveyed experienced a major incident at least several times a year. For larger organizations with at least 5,000 employees, that figure rises to more than 90 percent.

The Consequences of Slow Response

Rapid, effective response can limit the damage. In a separate survey performed by Dimensional Research in April, 60 percent said finding and engaging the right person takes more than 15 minutes. But before 15 minutes have elapsed, almost half (45 percent) said the business has already started to suffer.

And the suffering is real, according to the most recent survey. A large majority (82 percent) says application downtime affects revenue. According to a 2014 study by industry analyst firm IDC, the average cost of a critical application failure per hour is $500,000 to $1 million.

Given how quickly, seriously and frequently a major incident affects businesses, why aren't they making critical investments in major incident management?

Money and Resources

First, a best-in-class intelligent communication platform is not cheap. So organizations that still view major incidents as unlikely events could be put off just by the cost.

Another factor is resources. Barely half of companies in the new survey (52 percent) have a major incident team. Only 44 percent of those companies have team members who are dedicated solely to major incident management.

Finally, maybe the word hasn't gotten out to all companies just how important rapid and effective major incident management is.

Is the Status Quo Working?

The effectiveness of current practices is not entirely clear because only 68 percent of companies even specify target times for resolving major incidents. But among those that are, the results are not good.

More than three-quarters of respondents, 76 percent, miss their target times sometimes or often. Most companies in the survey (58 percent) have target times between 30-90 minutes. Remember the IDC figure of up to $1 million per hour of application downtime? Do the math.

So What Have We Learned?

Regardless of why more companies haven't created processes and implemented solutions for resolving major incidents, the current state of affairs is troubling. And this article has only touched on the financial implications of major incidents. Business also suffer from reputational damage, loss of customer loyalty and trust, and sanctions from regulatory bodies.

Major incidents happen frequently, and every business should assume that sooner or later it will experience one. The ability to quickly, efficiently and effectively respond could save the business, its shareholders, its customers and partners.

Are you prepared?



Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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