The technology resiliency imperative: Safeguarding IT systems against cyber threats and downtime

By Akash Lal, Senior Partner, and Mrityunjay Ravi Iyer, Associate Partner, McKinsey & Company 

In today’s digital world, businesses rely on technology to deliver ‘all day, every day’ seamless services and maintain customer relationships. Hence, keeping the IT systems ‘up’ has been an imperative in an increasingly sophisticated technology environments, need for software upgrades, multiplicity in vendors and cyber threats. 

In the previous year, there was a 75% increase in intrusions into cloud-hosted environments, and that number is increasing as companies move to the cloud more. 

The financial and operational impacts of technology outages can be severe: a recent Gartner study found that the average cost of IT downtime is $5,600 per minute, with some industries experiencing even higher costs. These financial implications can result from lost productivity, customer dissatisfaction, and potential legal liabilities.

A proactive approach from a management perspective to technology resiliency could ...