What would happen if one critical person, system or service your organization relies on suddenly became unavailable?
While many organizations are focused on protecting themselves from cyber attacks, especially as advancements in AI change the threat landscape, less attention is often given to what happens when something goes wrong. Whether it’s a cyberattack, system outage or other disruption, organizations need to be prepared to keep critical operations running. It’s not a question of if something will go wrong, but when.
Even one single point of failure can leave an organization scrambling to restore operations. Building resiliency starts with identifying those dependencies ahead of time and having a plan to minimize their impact.
In what follows, we will explore common single points of failure and how organizations can address them.
Key Takeaways
- Identify people, systems and services that represent single points of failure.
- Document critical processes and share knowledge among employees.
- Build redundancy into essential services such as internet connectivity and backups.
- Maintain multiple backup copies and regularly test restoration procedures.
- Prepare for cloud and third-party outages.
Example 1: Single Administrators
When your business relies on individuals with specialized knowledge of critical applications, systems or processes, their absence can cause serious issues.
For instance, many organizations rely heavily on:
- The network administrator who built the infrastructure
- The finance manager who maintains key reporting processes
- The IT consultant who manages backups
- The application administrator who knows system configurations
The problem arises when organizations fail to ask: What happens if that person is unavailable when we need them?
The key is to spread the knowledge:
One of the best ways to reduce this dependency is to make sure critical knowledge is shared rather than held by a single person. This starts with clearly documenting important processes, system configurations and access procedures so that others can step in when needed. Cross-training key staff adds another layer of protection by ensuring more than one person is familiar with essential tasks and systems. Secure emergency access procedures should also be in place for critical systems and administrative accounts, allowing the organization to maintain access and keep operations moving when a key administrator is unavailable.
Example 2: Single Internet Connection
Losing internet connectivity can mean losing access to email, cloud applications, communication platforms and other essential services.
Organizations should ask:
- What happens if our primary internet provider experiences an outage?
- How quickly can connectivity be restored?
- Do we have a secondary provider?
- Can employees work remotely if the office loses connectivity?
Always have a Plan B:
Building resilience around internet connectivity starts with having a reliable backup plan. A secondary connection, ideally through a different provider or infrastructure, can help keep essential services available if the primary connection goes down. Organizations can take this a step further by implementing automatic failover, which redirects network traffic to the backup connection with minimal disruption.
It is also important to plan beyond the technology itself. If connectivity cannot be quickly restored, employees should know how and where they can continue working, whether that means working remotely or temporarily operating from another location.
Example 3: Single Backup Repositories
Having backups does not automatically mean an organization is prepared for an incident. The backup environment itself can become a single point of failure.
Common weaknesses include:
- A single backup repository
- Backups stored on the same network as production systems
- Lack of immutable storage
- No offsite or cloud-based copy
Don’t just back it up. Make sure you can get it back:
A backup strategy is only as reliable as an organization’s ability to recover from it. If an incident affects both production systems and their backups, critical data could become inaccessible. The 3-2-1-1-0 backup rule helps reduce this risk by maintaining three copies of data across two types of media, with one stored offsite and another kept offline, air-gapped or immutable. The final “0” represents zero errors during backup recovery verification, helping ensure data can actually be restored when it matters most.
Example 4: Single Cloud Providers
Cloud services can improve flexibility and availability, but they can also create new dependencies. Organizations may face situations where:
- A cloud outage impacts business-critical applications.
- An account becomes compromised.
- Access credentials are lost.
- A vendor changes pricing or service terms unexpectedly.
Don’t leave everything up in the cloud:
Cloud resilience starts with knowing which critical processes depend on each provider and having a plan for when those services become unavailable. Independent backups, alternative communication methods and temporary workarounds can help keep operations moving during an outage. Organizations should also maintain secure emergency access procedures and ensure critical administrative access never depends on just one person.
Final Thoughts
Organizational resiliency is not about preventing every possible disruption. It is about making sure one failure does not bring the organization to a standstill.
Start by asking: What people, systems or services could we not operate without, and what would happen if one suddenly became unavailable?
From there, organizations can address their most important dependencies through documentation, cross-training, redundancy, reliable backups and tested recovery procedures.
Something will eventually go wrong. The difference is whether your organization is left scrambling for answers or already knows what to do next.
Want to ensure your organization can keep operating when the unexpected happens? Connect with your local IT experts at MicroAge today to identify potential gaps, strengthen your resiliency and build a strategy that keeps your business moving: https://microage.ca/contact-us/
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