With no end in sight, up to nine million businesses are in the midst of an online apocalypse. Wreaking havoc on their businesses in the lead up to the Easter weekend, US based domain host HostGator, has gone offline, causing a worldwide blackout of websites and emails for their customers.
With no redundancy, continuity or other emergency plans appear to be in place, millions of affected organisations now have no online presence in a world that has become reliant on these vital digital assets to do business.
“Ensuring you have the right partner in place to host your website and email is just as important as making sure you have the right insurance for your business,” says Anthony Peake, Director of digital asset protection group Domain Shield. “Without the right level of redundancy or understanding of the importance of continuity, you’re putting your business at risk,” Peake says.
With even small web and email outages costing millions of dollars to businesses, Peake warns of devastating consequences for those involved in the latest dramas. “Small businesses are particularly prevalent online and reliant on email communication and online shopfronts. Even a few hours of downtime can mean the difference between paying the bills and going without,” he says.
Domain Shield partners with online security company MailGuard to protect clients from downtime by providing continuity and redundancy plans for businesses. MailGuard CEO Craig McDonald, this morning confirmed a number of support calls have been fielded from business owners and IT groups hit by today’s outage.
“Ten plus hours is a long time to be without your website and email. We’re doing everything we can to retrospectively assist those affected but the best thing everyone can do is make sure it can’t happen to them in the first place,” says McDonald.
Anyone requiring more information about digital asset protection is invited to contact Domain Shield on 1300 725 021.
