Network Downtime Results in Job, Revenue Loss

SANTA CLARA, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 5, 2014) -

• Avaya survey reveals 80% percent of companies lose revenue when the network goes down; on average, companies lost $140,00 USD as a result of network outages
• 1 in 5 companies fired an IT employee as a result of network downtime

As today's business environment requires greater levels of business continuity than ever before, a new survey commissioned by Avaya demonstrates that traditional network vulnerabilities are causing more business impacts that most realize, resulting in revenue and job loss.

The survey of mid-to-large companies in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom found that 82% of those surveyed experienced some type of network downtime caused by IT personnel making errors when configuring changes to the core of the network. In fact, the survey found that one-fifth of all network downtime in 2013 was caused by core errors. More troubling is the fact that 80% of companies experiencing downtime from core errors in 2013 lost revenue, with the average company losing $140,003 per incident. The financial sector lost an average of $540,358 per incident.

The resulting impact on a career can be significant: a surprising 1 in 5 companies fired an IT employee when a network downtime incident occurred. The factor was more dramatic for some industries. Respondents also said that 1 in 3 companies in the natural resources, utilities & telecoms sector sacked IT staff due to downtime caused by change errors.

Avaya's networking portfolio can drastically reduce core errors in the network. When implementing a new network service, Avaya's Fabric Connect automatically configures the distribution and core switches. IT personnel need only to configure edge devices. To run network services today, many competitive networking vendors must use a collection of dated protocols developed in the mid '80s that require IT personnel to configure the core of the network for service changes. 

Avaya is no stranger to deploying agile, risk-reducing networks. By being the first Games to leverage network virtualization, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee was able to raise the bar for simplicity, reliability and speed. The agility of the Avaya technology deployed in Sochi makes it a formidable opponent to the ever-changing, dynamic Olympic Games environment -- enabling any last minute move, add and change requests to be completed quickly and without risk. Furthermore, this technology can easily accommodate the sudden spikes in network utilization which are common for high profile competition events. 

Quotes:
"The advantage of Avaya Fabric Connect is that you only have to build the core once and don't have to revisit it with redesign or reconfiguration when your requirements change."
-Phil Taylor, Communications Consultant, Leeds Metropolitan University

"Our customers immediately display a look of disbelief when we tell them that they do not need to configure the network core to roll out new services. Then, when we demonstrate the technology live that look of disbelief changes to one of excitement when they see what they can do."
-Marc Randall, SVP and General Manager, Avaya Networking

About Avaya:
Avaya is a global provider of business collaboration and communications solutions, providing unified communications, contact centers, networking and related services to companies of all sizes around the world. For more information please visit www.avaya.com.

Survey Methodology:
Avaya surveyed 210 IT professionals in large organizations (250+ employees) within the United States, Canada and United Kingdom to understand how much revenue was lost in total as a result of all the downtime incidents caused by core network changes in 2013. The surveys were completed in January 2014 in coordination with Dynamic Markets (UK).

Certain statements contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "should" or "will" or other similar terminology. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections. While we believe these expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections are reasonable, such forward looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. These and other important factors may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. For a list and description of such risks and uncertainties, please refer to Avaya's filings with the SEC that are available at www.sec.gov.  Avaya disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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