How Server Downtime Impacts Your Business & How QuickBooks Hosting Prevents It

No business, whether a startup or an enterprise, can afford disruptions in its operations. However, when it comes to the local IT infrastructure, these disruptions are inevitable.

Server downtime is one of the most common causes that hamper business continuity and bring down productivity. It can be defined as the period during which the server remains non-operational.

The average cost of hourly server downtime costs between 301,000 to 400,000 US dollars (source: Statista).

There can be numerous reasons for server downtime – equipment (cooling, power, etc.) failure, hardware crash, cyber attacks, and more.

However, when using business-critical applications like QuickBooks, downtime is not an option as it can lead to data and productivity loss. Hence, a better solution is to opt for the cloud services of a third-party provider – a process known as QuickBooks hosting.

Let us see the perils of server downtime and the role of QuickBooks hosting in preventing it.

The Negative Impact of Server Downtime

1) Productivity

In the current market scenario, business agility is becoming paramount not just to sustain but thrive. Most accounting firms cater to a global client base, wherein they need to design a 24/7 business process with an extended workforce. The employees are expected to be productive, where productivity is measured through various KPIs.

However, in the case of server or network downtime, the accountants are often forced to sit idle, and you cannot blame them for it. It may take hours for the system to come up, leading to inaccessibility to QuickBooks and other apps. Consequently, employees may have to work late hours to cover up the lost time.

2) Reputation

As eloquently put by Warren buffet – “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it”. Hence, there is nothing that a company would not do to maintain its good name in the market.

However, server downtime can put a halt in your business, affecting your reputation among people. News travels faster than the speed of light, and soon there are negative reviews on the Internet. This means that the prospective customers become reluctant to choose you.

3) Clients

Reputation in the market is built by the ‘good word’ spread by the customers. They give customer reviews on different platforms and recommend your services to their peers.

A loyal customer would be able to let go of server downtime issues once or twice. However, if the issue persists, even the oldest of customers might be forced to look for an alternative. This not only leads to a bad name in the market but also the loss of a constant revenue stream.

4) Data Loss

Data is the lifeblood of any business, more so in accounting. Be it sales forecasting, competitor analysis, or risk management, no core process is possible without the availability of data. Hence, every company, small or big, does everything in its power to ensure QuickBooks data security.

Still, some IT outages that cause downtime can lead to the loss or corruption of your critical QuickBooks accounting data. This is the worst-case scenario for any business, sending business executives into a frenzy and causing significant loss to businesses.

5) SLA Breach

Every service industry, especially accounting, has the concept of SLA (Service Level Agreement), where the service provider is legally obligated to offer the customers with a certain quality of services. In fact, SLA is a great differentiator between good accounting firms and mediocre ones. A breach of SLA can cause the accounting firms to be on the wrong end of a lawsuit.

Server downtime can cause the accounting firms to be subpar in their services. This can lead to not one but multiple breaches of SLA, leading to catastrophic effects for the accounting firm.

How QuickBooks Hosting Can Help You Solve Server Downtime Issues

Here is how QuickBooks hosting service can help you eliminate server downtime issues.

1. Scalable IT Solution

The cloud environment is highly scalable as compared to the traditional IT infrastructure. In the local desktop/server setup, the hardware resources need to be upgraded manually through hardware replacements, which sometimes causes server downtime.

On the contrary, in the case of QuickBooks on cloud, the hardware resources such as RAM and storage can be instantly upgraded or downgraded without any server downtime.

2. Disaster Recovery

One of the major causes of server downtime is the occurrence of natural disasters near the office location. It can be a tornado or an earthquake that causes irreparable damage to the premises, causing downtime for weeks.

In the case of QuickBooks hosting, the service providers implement disaster recovery, which implies the replication of QuickBooks and its data on redundant servers. These servers are situated far from the disaster-prone area. Hence, it allows you to keep working even in the case of a disaster.

3. High-Performance Computing

When the QuickBooks is installed with other applications on your local servers, it can sometimes become overloaded and hang. The server needs to be rebooted then, causing downtime.

The best QuickBooks hosting providers in the market deploy high-performance computing (HPC) environment with parallel processing capabilities. HPC ensures that multiple applications can be run simultaneously without causing downtime.

4. Advanced Security

IT downtime can occur due to any number of reasons, such as hardware malfunctions, outdated hardware, or cyber threats like ransomware and DDoS attack. Most businesses take regular backup of their data on separate servers. However, during an area-wide calamity like a natural disaster, the backup servers are also compromised.

QuickBooks hosting providers counter this situation by ensuring multiple security safeguards at different levels. Some of the advanced security methods include end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, multiple firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention, and access control policies.

5. Managed Services

The hardware setup needs proper maintenance to function optimally. Moreover, every piece of hardware has a lifecycle and needs to be upgraded/replaced regularly. These maintenance tasks cause server downtime for QuickBooks.

QuickBooks hosting providers offer managed services, where all the IT maintenance, upgrade, and repair tasks are done by the provider. As cloud is highly flexible, you can continue working even when the maintenance task is ongoing.

6. Uptime Guarantee

Server downtime issues can only be addressed if you have a backup IT setup to fall back to. Otherwise, any small fault in the server setup can cause downtime.

QuickBooks hosting providers address this issue by deploying a multi-redundant IT setup. This means that any failed IT equipment can be replaced almost instantly. Consequently, the best QB hosting providers are able to guarantee an uptime of as high as 99.99 percent in their SLA.

Final Note

Server downtime does not only mean the loss of access to your QuickBooks; it also means loss of reputation. To keep afloat in the market, it is necessary to look for advanced solutions that minimize downtimes.

QuickBooks hosting is one such IT solution that keeps downtime at bay by offering your software and data with cloud capabilities. With multi-layered data security and high server output, it not only helps you sustain in the market but thrive.

Want to try QuickBooks hosting? Get in touch with our Solutions Consultant at +1-855-223-4887.