July 19, 2025
If you've ever signed an IT contract
because it promised "99.9% uptime," you're not alone. It sounds good on
paper—until you realize it doesn't help when the system is down and your team
is in the dark.
Uptime guarantees often focus on
infrastructure availability. They don't cover misconfigurations, poor response
times, or the wait time to speak with a human. And they certainly don't fix the
reputational or compliance damage caused by a delay.
The Ponemon Institute found that the
average cost of downtime in manufacturing now exceeds $17,000 per minute. Most
of that loss isn't about the system itself—it's about people being stuck,
customers waiting, and leadership losing trust in IT support.
One mid-sized manufacturing plant learned
this the hard way. After a power surge knocked out access to their inventory
and shipping systems, their MSP kept referring back to the SLA. "We're still
within our uptime threshold," they said. But finance couldn't invoice. Shipping
couldn't move. The CFO had to field board questions by flashlight.
"A
guarantee without accountability is just a marketing line." — Frank Blake, former
CEO of Home Depot
By contrast, a nearby plant with a
similar issue had a different outcome. Their IT partner sent an immediate
alert, initiated triage, and restored full visibility in under 30 minutes. They
still took a hit—but their credibility stayed intact.
"People
remember how fast you recovered more than what failed." — Anne Mulcahy, former
CEO of Xerox
Questions every CFO should be asking
now:
- What exactly does our MSP's uptime guarantee include—and exclude?
- Are we measuring actual recovery time, or just contractual obligations?
- How are incidents communicated to our team during a disruption?
- Do we have clarity on who owns what in an emergency?
5 overlooked red flags in MSP
contracts:
- No clarity on recovery responsibility timelines
- Vague language around third-party hardware failures
- No mention of internal alerting or communication cadence
- Penalties that don't match the cost of real disruption
- Lack of transparency in monthly system health reporting
If you're counting on the fine print to
protect your operations, make sure you know what's really in it. Because when
things go sideways, silence isn't just frustrating—it's expensive.
