The Essential Need for Always-On Applications

From Mission-Critical to Everyday Operations

In today’s “always-on” world, technology plays a vital role in organizations’ efficiency and competitiveness. Some applications are classified as “mission critical,” signifying their essentiality to an organization’s core operations. These applications require high reliability and availability since any downtime or malfunction can have significant consequences. Additionally, everyday applications used in day-to-day business operations are critical to an organization’s success. Therefore, guaranteeing the high availability and reliability of all critical applications is crucial. In this blog, we will delve into why always-on applications are fundamental in today’s fast-paced and competitive business landscape. Additionally, we will explore what organizations can do to ensure their applications are highly available and reliable.

Customers and Employees Expect 24/7 Application Availability

First and foremost, customers and employees expect applications to be available 24/7, from any device and any location. In today’s digital age, application downtime or slow performance can lead to lost revenue, damage to reputation, and even the loss of customers. For example, consider an e-commerce website that experiences downtime during a critical sales period. Customers may become frustrated and abandon their shopping carts, resulting in lost revenue and potentially damaging the company’s reputation. Similarly, if an employee cannot access an essential application, they may not be able to complete their work, leading to lost productivity and potentially impacting the overall success of the organization.

Furthermore, as more organizations move their operations to the cloud, ensuring the availability and reliability of applications has become even more critical. In a cloud environment, complex systems, such as ERPs, may be running across multiple servers, data centers, and even geographic regions. This complexity can make it more challenging to identify and address issues quickly, making it essential for organizations to have robust monitoring and alerting systems in place to ensure they can respond promptly to any problems that arise.

How Organizations Can Ensure Applications Are Always-On

So, what can organizations do to ensure their applications are always-on? One approach is to implement a robust disaster recovery plan that includes redundant systems and failover mechanisms. This approach can help ensure that if one component fails, another can take over seamlessly without causing downtime or disruption. Organizations must also invest in the necessary infrastructure and tools to monitor their applications continuously and proactively address any issues before they become critical.

Additionally, organizations can leverage technologies such as automation to improve the availability and reliability of their applications. For example, automating routine tasks can help reduce the risk of human error, and address issues quickly before they become critical.

Whether they’re mission-critical or not, it’s vital to ensure that applications are available and reliable to maintain productivity, efficiency, and customer satisfaction. Organizations need to invest in the necessary infrastructure, tools, and processes to guarantee that their applications are highly available and reliable. They should also be ready to act quickly in response to any issues that may arise. Ultimately, an always-on approach to applications is a key factor for organizations to succeed in today’s fast-paced and highly competitive business environment.

Reproduced with permission from SIOS