One of the most headache-inducing issues when running a business is technical difficulties. They can frustrate you, your staff, and most importantly, your customers. IT outages can lead to revenue loss, damaged client retention, disgruntled staff, and lowered productivity overall.
If you experienced the global IT outage affecting millions of Windows devices on Friday, July 19th, 2024, you probably felt this impact in real-time. Here’s what happened, who was most impacted, and how you can prepare for any future outages.
What Happened to My Computer on Friday, July 19th?
On July 19th, roughly 8.5 million computers across the globe stopped working. Dreaded blue screens replaced what should have been functional computers, leaving many businesses floundering. Experts have called this outage a testament to our reliance on technology, and the fragility of global IT infrastructures as a whole.
What Caused the Outage?
This major network outage was linked to Crowdstrike, an infrastructure security company that works as a vendor to Microsoft. During a recent routine software update, an unintentional bug resulted in outages across the world.
What’s worse, the bug couldn’t be automatically removed from affected computers. Each affected device had to be manually rebooted to a safe mode by a human being to isolate and remove the bad file. Although the rollout was halted, Crowdstrike cannot remove the file in masse.
This outage was so widespread and harmful, that many lawmakers are calling for Crowdstrike CEO George Kurtz to testify before Congress to answer for it.
Patient Care Suffers in Healthcare
Perhaps the most critical industry affected by the outage, healthcare was rocked by the sudden shutdown of their much-needed computer systems. IT outages have particularly high stakes for hospitals, since patients can directly suffer if providers are unable to access crucial technology.
According to ABC News, it’s estimated that at least 12 major hospital systems were affected in the US. Many hospitals along with MA's largest healthcare giant Mass General Brigham had to cancel elective procedures on Friday due to the outage. This shows how critical IT systems are to the healthcare industry, and how quickly an outage can harm patient care.
Critical Financial Institutions Brought to a Halt
This event was more than just a healthcare outage. The Crowdstrike outage left financial services disrupted, with banks such as American Express reporting troubles with processing transactions.
Customers of the long list of affected banks were unable to access their online accounts. This induced panic for financial customers, which shows how IT outages can impact more than just staff.
Managing money online is a huge necessity, and for financial businesses, it's pivotal in retaining customers. That's why IT services for banks are a great solution to prevent smaller-scale outages. Outsourced IT services for the financial industry can also help reduce downtime if something like this global outage happens again.
Airline Delays and Cancellations Disrupt Travel, Cause Chaos
The global tech outage also led to flight delays and cancellations for almost all major airlines. Countless passengers awaited outage updates in backed-up terminals as airlines scrambled.
Delta issued an apology to inconvenienced travelers after canceling over 8,000 flights due to the airline's computer outage. The tedious reboot process to sort out the computer bugs made the cleanup arduous and costly for the company.
This made a troublesome year worse for Delta. The airline was already losing revenue due to a tourism dip caused by travelers avoiding Paris during the 2024 Olympics. This shows how an IT outage can cripple your business, no matter how large, especially during financially tough times.
What Are the Costs of IT Downtime?
Downtime can lead to a number of direct or indirect costs to your business. For some industries such as manufacturing, halted operations cause exponential loss in revenue the longer disruptions last.
For others, IT outages can lead to lowered productivity or staff motivation. These in turn can lead to losing out on business or client retention.
To read more about the ways IT outages could cost you, read our blog: The Hidden Costs of Faulty IT Infrastructure
How to Prepare for Future IT Slowdowns
Unfortunately, as technology advances, IT issues become more complicated and difficult to resolve. That's why many businesses opt to outsource IT, since managed service providers (MSPs) are often fully-staffed with experts including:
- Cybersecurity specialists
- IT project managers
- Highly-trained service technicians
- Virtual Chief Technology Officers (VCIOs)
- Integration specialists
With the ample resources housed by one outsourced vendor, businesses can focus on their day-to-day operations instead of worrying about IT issues. Managed IT is also well-suited for small businesses since it's much cheaper than in-house staff. To learn more about hiring internally vs outsourcing IT, read our comparison here: Outsourced Managed IT services VS. In-house IT support
Find an Outsourced IT Company to Prepare for Cyber Threats, IT Outages & More
Businesses can learn a lot about the Crowdstrike/Microsoft outage. Users across the globe felt the effects of IT downtime at a massive scale. They experienced in real-time the disruptions and chaos one bad update can lead to.
To prevent and mitigate these outages, many small businesses choose to outsource their IT. They do this because outsourced services offer benefits like:
- Cost-effectiveness compared to hiring internal IT staff
- Fully staffed teams of cybersecurity experts, IT technicians, VCIOs and more
- On-site and remote managed IT services
- Quick response times with staffing to accommodate immediate needs
If you're interested in mitigating IT disruptions so you can focus on your business, click the button below to speak to an IT expert.
