Network disruptions plague businesses

In a business continuity (BC) survey of 7 000 CDW system solution customers in the US, 25% reported experiencing a network disruption of four hours or more within the past year, reports Computerworld.

CDW then conducted a second poll of 200 IT decision-maker customers who had experienced significant network outages since July 2009 and found that power loss, hardware failures and lost telecommunications were problematic. Majority said network disruptions had "detrimental effects" on business productivity.

"The survey confirms that while many businesses believe they are prepared for an unplanned network disruption, many are not - and yet the three most common causes of IT outages are addressable," Norm Lillis, vice-president of CDW system solutions, said in a statement.

In a move to reach more small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), Dell is delivering a network attached storage (NAS) device, two small business servers, and wireless gear aimed at providing the same powerful technology that enterprises use, at a reasonable price, reveals Small Business Computing.

Dell introduced the PowerVault NX200 Network Attached Storage tower, the R415 and R515 servers, and a line of PowerConnect wireless solutions called the W-Series.

The two servers are due to be available on 11 October, while the NAS tower and the wireless solutions are available now, the company says.

Though many don't consider BC and disaster recovery services as important, a business' own data centre can be its greatest asset and should be fully utilised, serviced and backed up to ensure smooth running should things go wrong in the office for any reason, writes Rackspace.

Writing for eWeek, Frank Bibens, president of Emerson Network Power's Liebert Services, says: "For many organisations, the IT infrastructure has evolved into an interdependent, business-critical network that includes data, applications, storage, servers and networking.

"A power failure at any point along the network can impact the entire operation and have serious consequences for the business," he writes.