Why databases have moved from a backroom to a boardroom discussion
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There are good reasons business leaders should care about their database ā and hidden costs for not doing so
For most business leaders, the database is something you donāt think much about until thereās an issue with it. Itās like running water, electricity or the coffee machine: you just expect it to work. Then when it cuts out or malfunctions, the impact is felt across the business.
Thatās the real power of the database ā if treated well, it can be a major accelerator of efficiency across your business. Your data, after all, is one of your most important assets. Across every sector, whether itās financial services or healthcare, government or retail, manufacturing or media, databases provide access to products or services, sales or support, and the data they collect and process offer the insights enterprises need to navigate what has become an uncertain business environment.
An optimised database can be the star performer in your migration to the cloud, in your move to microservices and in other change initiatives. If the right guardrails arenāt in place, however, in terms of how databases are managed and monitored, and how data is protected, they can become a significant business risk. That, in turn, can result in some unexpected costs.
The cost of downtime
The first is downtime because database performance issues can become very costly, very quickly. Using research from the Ponemon Institute and OpsWorks Co, the average cost of enterprise downtime caused by the databaseĀ has been calculated at $4.05 million per year.
While that seems high, itās easy to see how it adds up, with theĀ 2022 ITIC Global Server Reliability SurveyĀ revealing that 91 per cent of organisations calculate the hourly cost of unplanned downtime being $300,000. Alongside that is the number of downtime incidents per year, with the Ponemon InstituteāsĀ Data Center Downtime studyĀ finding that data centres experienced an average of 2.4 total facility shutdowns per year and ten further downtime events on selected racks or servers.
Hence the increasing recognition that a database monitoring tool can help diagnose and resolve issues quickly and reduce the possibility of downtime happening in the first place. It can also alert you to security problems that put your data at risk ā the cost of which is another concern.
The cost of data breaches
The cost of downtime that weāve already seen reflects the direct costs of remediating the technical issues and business problems that caused the downtime. If robust database practices and tools are not in place, you can also increase your risk of a data breach.
According to IBMāsĀ Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022, 83 per cent of organisations have had more than one data breach, and a single data breach costs an average of $5.05 million in the UK, while in the US it rises to $9.44 million. Again, thatās just the initial financial hit, and the cost to the brand and bottom line will be far further reaching than that.
Worryingly, itās almost certain that youāre storing sensitive data in your database estate. As such, one of the key responsibilities for enterprises is to maintain database compliance and security in line with regulations. And these rules are changing all the time, thanks largely to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force across the EU in 2018.
Since then, tighter legislation has been enacted across the globe with, notably, the lack of federal legislation in the US prompting nine states so far to put comprehensive data privacy laws in place. Without proper investment in tools and processes, itās easy for databases to be exposed to attacks.
The cost of human error and lost productivity
When looking into the risk of data breaches, a surprising factor emerges.Ā Thales 2023 Data Threat ReportĀ found that, for the second year running, āhuman errorā was the number one concern, ahead of āhacktivistsā and ānation-state actorsā.
This shouldnāt come as a surprise because manual database and software deployments involve laborious and error-prone steps that are costly and time-consuming, and increase the chance of failed deployments, downtime and heightened risk.
Automating the process with the wide range of proven tools now available makes deployments reliable, repeatable and robust, minimises errors and gets software in front of customers much faster.
It also resolves another hidden cost ā disengaged employees and a subsequent fall in productivity. This is a major concern, with GallupāsĀ State of the Global Workplace: 2023 ReportĀ showing that, while 23 per cent of employees are engaged and thriving, 59 per cent donāt feel engaged and are āquiet quittingā, and 18 per cent are actively disengaged and āloud quittingā.
Thatās a very big ā and largely unseen ā hit to the bottom line. Yet when asked what employees would change to make the workplace better, engagement and wellbeing are far ahead of pay and benefits. Itās about doing less repetitive work and gaining more autonomy to stimulate creativity.
In terms of the database, introducing automation and streamlining processes results in freeing IT teams from the boring work that causes them to be disengaged. This enables them to do more fulfilling work that benefits them and, just as importantly, the business they work for.
The cost of regulatory fines
Finally, we come to what is becoming the biggest cost of all: the fines levied as a result of the increasingly tighter data privacy legislation weāve seen being enacted.
As of June 2023, theĀ total fines imposed under the GDPRĀ top ā¬4 billion. While Meta heads the list with a May 2023 fine of ā¬1.2 billion, 1,716 fines have been imposed on a wide range of other businesses. In September 2022, the first fine under the California Consumer Protection Act, of $1.2 million, was also imposed. A smaller sum, but a sign that data protection has now become a business issue everywhere.
And sitting at the heart of all these costs, whether itās downtime, breaches, human error or data protection regulations, is the database. Properly managed and monitored, databases can be a valuable business asset. But, as weāve seen, the cost of doing nothing can escalate rapidly. No surprise, then, that in many enterprises the database has now moved from the backroom to a boardroom discussion.
RedgateĀ has specialised in providing database solutions for over 20 years. Your organisation can achieve speed, reliability and greater efficiencies, all while minimising downtime and maintaining compliance.
Find out more atĀ www.Redgate.com/Enterprise.
