If you had the tools and resources to prevent 99.9999% of systems failures and save hundreds of thousands of dollars for your business, would you? Unfortunately many businesses don't do what is necessary to prevent website outages.

The worst thing about the Internet is that your outage will show for years to come. A popular Web Hosting forum even has a section “Providers and Network Outages” were people go before buying hosting services.
During my consulting years, I worked in government contracting. Among other systems administrators we have a saying, “When systems fail, people die.” The few outages faced in production environments were either induced for testing or due to physical damage to the majority of components.
Your commercial environment isn't that rough on hardware. If properly addressed you can prevent a large number of system failures, it doesn't take as much money as it does know how.
Preventing systems failures just required time and attention. If you are grossly understaffed in your IT department then expect failure to happen. There is never enough time to do everything, but failures to prioritize in management (instead catering to end-users desires) will cause important tasks to be ignored.
When your website fails, more than just what the public sees hurts you. It's what is left behind, or introduced in haste that may haunt you forever. It only takes a little investment upfront to do thing right, because you won't have the time later to do it again.
© 2008 JWH Consolidated Inc, All rights reserved.

Justin Hitt helps businesses plan and design failure proof web environments that generate revenue. For details visit https://www.jwhco.com/