Companies are being forced to cut costs, and one effect that’s having is increased risk of downtime and security breaches in the data center. But a new report says those cost savings may be worth it. 

Businesses are looking for ways to reduce costs in their IT infrastructure, and among other things, that means assuming higher levels of risk than many organizations are used to, according to a recent report from DCD Intelligence. For the first time, data center operators said budget restrictions were their top concern — previously, those issues were second to resilience.

And that’s changing their approach. Typically, when companies have designed data centers they aimed for a Tier 4 facility. Defined by the Telecommunications Industry Association, that means a data center with a redundant infrastructure and dual-powered cooling equipment and an expected availability of 99.995% — or about 26 minutes a year of downtime.

However, given the costs constricts, many of the businesses surveyed by DCD are considering aiming for Tier 3 or even Tier 2 data centers when they design new facilities. Tier 3 data centers have an expected downtime of about 95 minutes per year, while Tier 2 increases that expectation to more than 22 hours.

And that may not be a bad thing, according to the report. It’s possible that the companies had previously overestimated their need to avoid risk, says DCD. And many of the organizations surveyed are shifting their focus to increasing the reliability of their applications, which can be just as important for keeping a business up and running.

Cloud computing can help, too

Another step organizations are taking to deal with limitations in the data center budget is to turn to cloud computing services. That allows businesses to move data and applications off of their network and on to a service providers’. While availability concerns still exist, cloud computing service contracts often include uptime guarantees and offer financial penalties if they aren’t met.

In addition, companies are turning to cloud computing for disaster recovery services. It’s expensive to keep redundant infrastructure in case of an incident, and cloud services can allow companies to plan for disasters at a much lower cost.

Tags: availability, budgets, Disaster recovery