App Glitches Cost Agencies Millions of Dollars in Lost Productivity

How long does it take for federal agencies to pinpoint and resolve application performance glitches?

For the majority of the federal tech leaders polled in a recent study, it took a day or more, and that equates to some $4 million in lost productivity.

From email to enterprise-resource planning systems, applications are often critical to keeping agency operations running along.

But with the wave of both IT consolidation and public cloud storage, agencies face increasingly convoluted networks. About half of the federal IT decision-makers polled said network complexity is at the heart of their struggle, according to the study conducted by Market Connections, a market research firm.

“In today’s IT environment, network visibility has never been more critical, as it is the only way to quickly identify and fix application performance issues,” according to a report accompanying the survey results.

The study polled 100 respondents, who stemmed from a mixture of defense and civilian agencies. It was commissioned by Riverbed Technology, a company that helps agencies optimize application performance.

Many agencies don’t have the appropriate tools or funding to keep adequate tabs on their networks and apps, according to the report. About 45 percent of those polled blamed inadequate funding.

About two-thirds of those polled said they have “tools and procedures” to keep tabs on the functioning of their network, although not all of them are up to date. But less than one-third said they consider their ability to do so as “excellent.”

Just 17 percent of those polled said they could address network outages in minutes, according to the survey. On average, the hourly cost for infrastructure failure is about $100,000, according to the survey.

The situation may only be exacerbated in the future, as agencies increasingly shift to cloud applications, according to the report.

Agencies “haven’t prepared for what happens when they reach their destination,” Sean Applegate, Riverbed's director of technology strategy and advanced solutions, said in a statement. “This is creating a network visibility crisis that will significantly impact application performance if it’s not addressed.”

(Image via Ovchinnkov Vladimir/ Shutterstock.com)