Businesses rely on the availability of IT services to power their day-to-day operations. Most firms rely on technology to provide a wide range of services to end users and customers, and they would struggle to do so without a viable IT infrastructure.
As cloud computing becomes more prevalent, many enterprises rely on third-party cloud vendors to operate and deliver IT infrastructure services.
While vendors claim appropriate service reliability, such as Service Level Agreements (SLA) that ensure availability 99.999% of the time, cloud service outages are a harsh reality of the current enterprise IT market.
Even Amazon Web Services, the largest cloud vendor and pioneer of on-demand, subscription-based networked IT infrastructure, has experienced cloud outages.
What are Some Causes of Cloud Outages?
Cloud outages can have a complex web of potential causes. From server crashes and disk failures to software bugs, power disruptions, internet connectivity issues, or even user errors – the sources can be varied.
Unpredicted malicious attacks on cloud infrastructure also bear the risk for businesses relying on their services to remain operating smoothly.
Human Error – Human error is unavoidable. According to the Uptime Institute, 79% of data center outages in 2021 will be caused by human error. They are frequently the result of a staff employee forgetting or performing an action improperly. Everything can come down to pressing the incorrect button.
Cyber Attacks – According to a Ponemon Institute analysis from 2016, cybercrime is becoming an increasing cause of disruptions.
Technical Issues – Like with any digital product, malfunctions, and bugs can occur, resulting in outages.
Networking Issues – Certain cloud providers may rely on third parties to supply networking services. There may be a domino effect if there are problems with these systems. This can lead to a cloud outage.
Maintenance – Any digital system requires maintenance to keep things running smoothly. Users are usually notified in advance of any scheduled maintenance.
Environmental Causes – Hurricanes, storms, and other large-scale natural disasters can have an influence on neighboring data centers.
Electrical – According to the Uptime Institute, power failures are the most common source of outages.
Check out the infographic below by ERS IT Solutions which takes a further look at Cloud Outages and some of the most significant cloud outages that have happened.
