Global IT outage highlights importance of operational resilience

A major Microsoft IT outage affecting global airlines, banks, healthcare and retail has highlighted the critical importance of operational resilience for modern businesses.

On Friday July 19, reports surfaced of a mass computer issue taking much of the world’s infrastructure offline. While the cause of the problem was initially unknown it’s now believed to be related to an update issue at global cyber security firm Crowdstrike. The issue causes what is commonly referred to as a “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD) loop on Windows. This is a system crash, where the Windows operating system can no longer operate. 

Both Microsoft and CrowdStrike are investigating and fixing the problem as organizations around the world continue to be impacted.

“The global IT outage crisis is escalating, and organizations everywhere are in full scramble mode, desperately implementing workarounds to keep their businesses afloat,” says Maxine Holt, cyber security analyst at Omdia. “Microsoft has pointed fingers at a third-party software update, while Crowdstrike admits to a ‘defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts’ and is working feverishly with affected customers. Today’s outages will make enterprises rethink moving mission-critical applications off-premises. ”

The importance of operational resilience

This incident is a timely reminder that operational resilience should be at the forefront of the business agenda, says Alan Stephenson-Brown, CEO of Evolve. “Demonstrating that even large corporations aren’t immune to IT troubles, this outage highlights the importance of having distributed data centers and rerouting connectivity that ensures business can continue functioning when cloud infrastructure is disrupted.”

By prioritizing both contingency planning and preventative measures, IT systems can be protected, he adds. “I urge business leaders to seriously appraise the systems they have in place to identify potential vulnerabilities before they find themselves the subject of the next IT outages headline.”

Operational resilience is key for all businesses

If ever there was a call to action for improved business continuity and operational resilience assessments and plans, this is it, agrees Steve Ponting, business transformation and operational excellence leader at SoftwareAG. “Operational resilience is underpinned by the ability to identify important business services and to assess and mitigate risks presented to them by failures such as this.”

However, when businesses consider operational resilience, they often think about the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) or the UK Operational Resilience Act, associating it with banking and financial services, he adds. “As this global outage highlights however, this is not just a topic for banking and financial services organizations but for a plethora of service providers and institutions.”

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