As a business owner, there’s a lot that you have to think about. And one of the major factors to consider is your online presence. These days most of your customers will find you through the internet rather than more traditional forms of marketing. This means that your business needs to have a high quality website and it needs to be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. If your website is not available even for a couple of hours, then it is highly likely you will potentially lose customers to your competitors. Having no internet access may well affect your reputation in the future. It’s important for you to keep your website up and accessible at all times and this means ensuring that you avoid any and all server downtime.
What is Server Downtime?
Server downtime occurs when the server keeping your website on the internet is unable to complete its work. Servers are like vast computers that are used to communicate with other computers. When a user wants to access your website their computer will contact your server asking for the information from your website. Your server will then send the information back to the users, allowing them to access your website. As you might imagine, if the server is down, then it isn’t sending any information back to the computers that requested it.
This server downtime can be incredibly fatal for your business; its incredibly costly to get your server back up and running but also because you’ll lose productivity and revenue in that time. For most established businesses, you could be looking at a couple of thousand pounds lost per minute, which quickly escalates and can risk the stability of the entire company. It is perhaps not surprising, considering the importance of the server, how important it is to avoid any downtime.
What Can Cause Server Downtime?
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Power Outages
Like any computer, service needs power to run and while it is rare where to get a power outage these days, they are still possible. The problems that may arise as a result can be disastrous, so it is important to be aware of any suspected power outages before they occur.
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Criminal Activity
Unfortunately criminal activity that focuses on businesses is still quite common. Cyber attacks like ddos and data breaches can result in serious downtime for your system. And that’s before you consider the other damage that criminal activity can cause your business.
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Hardware Failure
Unfortunately, computers aren’t infallible and sometimes things will break. When this happens, it can lead to a system failure and downtime. This is why physical server maintenance is just as important as software maintenance.
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Resource Overload
One of the drawbacks of certain server types is the limited space available. Your server space will tend to limit the number of people that can access your website at once, and if this limit is exceeded the website and server could crash. This can be a concern, particularly if your business is growing faster than you realise.
How do we Avoid Server Downtime?
Here at catalyst2 we offer an exceptional service offering high quality servers to a variety of customers. We manage an entire suite of servers, which means we are constantly working to avoid server downtime. As a team of exceptional server providers, here are seven things that we do to keep our servers up and running 24/7.
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We Invest in Server Backups
We mentioned earlier, one of the big risks to servers is power outages. This can include both electrical power outages and internet outages, both of which stop servers completing their work. We work around this by ensuring that every one of our servers has a backup that will immediately be engaged in the event of a power outage. These backup servers are kept at a different location to our servers, ensuring that they won’t be subject to the same power and internet outages.
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We have Carefully Planned Disaster Recovery Systems
While we do everything we can to avoid many of the issues that can occur with a server, there are some things that are just out of our control. We have taken the time to make sure that all of our clients have a proper disaster recovery system in place. This includes backing up all of the data from their website and their clients to a different server, which will be safe from both accidental damage and malicious attack. Our disaster recovery plans and systems are client-specific, ensuring that all of your needs are met with our service. They are designed to help you get back on your feet as soon as possible with minimal damage to your business.
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We Load Test
The businesses that we work with are often growing and fluctuating, depending on the season their business is in. And, as this happens they will want to ensure that their server has the infrastructure for their current needs. This is why we will often load test our service to ensure that they are functioning the way they need to. This allows us to test for bottlenecks and other forms of system overload, which could cause a system crash and lead to extensive downtime. Load testing allows us to prepare for crisis situations and, at times, to avoid them altogether.
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We Offer Scalability
We avoid overloading our service by allowing clients to scale up and down their server space as necessary. This should mean that your system is always able to tackle whatever your clients might be thrown at it. We can do this as your business grows or we can arrange to boost the amount of server space you have based on your seasonal needs.
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We Maintain the Software
System maintenance is vital for ensuring that we spot any concerns or issues that can be exploited. Technology is constantly developing, which means that there is always something that needs updating. We take this part of our work very seriously, as meticulous software maintenance will keep your server up and running for as long as you need it.
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We Monitor the Hardware
While monitoring the software is important, it is just as vital for us to keep on top of the physical state of our servers. We take the time to ensure that our servers are in the best physical condition, replacing parts as they degrade and fall apart. By doing this, we ensure that our services are always in a good physical condition, with no risk of breaking down anytime soon.
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We Take Care of your Cyber Security
Cyber security is a big risk to businesses, who often hold a lot of data about their clients and customers. The loss of this data through malicious attacks can be the death knell of a company, as customers and clients will quickly lose faith in their ability to look after their data. Our team has taken drastic measures to ensure the security of our servers. We go into more detail about this part of our service on our website.
Do you Have Any Further Questions Regarding Server Downtime?
If you have any questions about the steps we take to avoid server downtime or if you’d like to find out more about the services we provide, you can call our team today on 0800 107 7979 or drop us an email at sales@catalyst2.com and we’ll get back to you promptly. We look forward to hearing from you.
