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What is a Priority 1 Outage?

What is a Priority 1 Outage?

WHAT IS A PRIORITY 1 OUTAGE?

Within a managed service provider, the words "we have a priority 1" creates an immediate sense of urgency and a call to arms.  A priority 1 outage means a client is experiencing a loss of service.  We sit up straight and come to attention because our client has lost access to a technical service that allows them to conduct their day to day business.

A priority 1 outage means an entire office or department is prevented in some way from doing their job.  We at Beringer know this is an emergency and have contingency processes in place to acknowledge the outage and restore service as quickly as possible.

A priority 1 outage is caused by many factors. Some examples include a thunderstorm cuts out the power, a server experiences a hardware failure, or a third party's infrastructure experiences an issue.  The first step is to identify the outage and who is impacted, the second step is to fix the issue, the third step is to determine the root cause of the issue.  There is a 4th step many forget. This step is completed throughout the entire life cycle of the Priority 1 outage.  This fourth step is communication.

While expert technical engineers are actively troubleshooting the priority 1 outage, the client may have no idea what is going on.  All the client understands at that moment is they cannot conduct their business.  Beringer has implemented a Priority 1 communication process to ensure the affected client, the Beringer leadership team, and other key stakeholders are informed throughout the life cycle of the Priority 1 outage. This includes what is impacted and what is being done to address the issue.

HOW BERINGER HANDLES A PRIORITY 1 OUTAGE

The Beringer team quickly identifies an issue as a Priority 1 outage through the many monitoring tools in place to protect our client's technical infrastructure.  Sometimes the client will inform us they have an issue, such as, degradation of response time that may not be exposed by a monitoring tool. As soon as an issue is identified as a Priority 1 outage, special processes are invoked.

While the technical engineers are working hard to identify and rectify the issue, a communication process is also started to ensure those that need to know are informed of the emergency and what actions are taking place to restore service.

This process is designed to ease the client's concerns during a priority 1 emergency.  They need to know, in real time, that their outage is of the utmost urgency to Beringer.  This is our job and it's what we do best.  The client is in good hands even when an emergency strikes.

Our clients receive an initial communication informing them there is an outage and that Beringer is aware and actively working on the issue.

They then receive timely updates informing them of the progress toward resolution.

The final communication lets the client know their service is restored and what was done to reach resolution.

WHAT'S NEXT?

After a priority 1 emergency is over and the client is back to doing what they do best, it's time for the third step.  Due to the seriousness of a priority 1 outage, an investigation is warranted.  This is called a Root Cause Analysis, a critical tool used to mitigate the frequency and length of future priority 1 outages.  Stay tuned for more information on this important process......

Beringer Technology Group is always here to provide expert knowledge in topics like these. Contact us with any questions that you may have!

Beringer Technology Group, a leading Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics 365 and CRM for Distribution. We also provide expert Managed IT ServicesBackup and Disaster RecoveryCloud Based Computing and Unified Communication Solutions.


theProfessor

theProfessor

Rob is the CTO of Beringer Technology Group, and focuses his efforts on software development, cloud engineering, team mentoring and strategic technical direction. Rob has worked with Beringer since 2005, and has influenced every department from Development, Security, Implementation, Support and Sales. Rob graduated with his MBA from Rowan University in 2012, earned his Bachelors of Computer Science in 1997, and is current with several Microsoft technical certifications. Rob is very active, and loves to mountain bike, weight train, cook and hike with his dog pack.