More than 40% of corporate websites suffer "miserable"
uptime performance, and more than 70% of UK government websites do
not offer a high enough level of availability, according to
research by Broadband Testing Labs for network monitoring firm
MyWebAlert.
Steve Broadhead, director of Broadband Testing Labs, said, "One
wonders why websites are still experiencing significant downtime.
We have instances that occurred during peak time and off peak."
With wide area network optimisation and resilience, Broadhead
said it was possible to create a completely redundant set-up.
"The fundamental problem appears to be with the hosting company
not implementing this technology," he said.
During February last year, many well-known retailers such as Ann
Summers, British Airways, B&Q, HMV, Halfords, J Sainsbury, Next
and Woolworths, suffered significant website downtime, according to
MyWebAlert's tests.
Michael Azoff, senior research analyst at Butler Group, said,
"There are excellent tools on the market for monitoring web
availability, falling under the heading of application performance
management.
"These tools can instantly flag up problems before they affect
users. They also monitor the end-user experience, which can be
different from the view within the IT department. Application
performance management tools are often introduced when the pain
suffered is sufficiently bad to call a specialist tool in."
John Earley, managing director of MyWebAlert, said, "Executive
management should take more responsibility and interest in the
availability of their organisations' new-age shop window, on the
premise that they would insist on better performance if they were
aware of the failure."
Earlier this month a survey by Vanson Bourne commissioned by
managed hosting firm NetBenefit showed that a third of IT directors
in mid-sized UK companies do not have a disaster recovery plan in
place for their firm's website, even though 75% of them admitted
they were doing business through their website.
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