The cost of downtime: Manufacturing's worst nightmare and how to solve it

In the world of manufacturing and supply chain, downtime caused by a security breach isn’t just an inconvenience—it’s a nightmare that can cripple operations, hindering both revenue and brand reputation.

Unfortunately, IBM ranked the manufacturing industry as the most attacked by cybercriminals for the third year in a row. With the industry lagging in cybersecurity adoption, many facilities remain vulnerable to cyberattacks.

This sector’s traditional practices for data storage—which tend to rely on data servers placed at each physical site—leave manufacturers exposed, especially when workers worldwide can’t access critical data, increasing the risk of costly mistakes.

Crystal Ball 2025 finale: AI and its influence on software and manufacturing security

Downtime at critical sites, whether the result of an outage or a ransomware attack, can lead to millions in losses. According to Aberdeen Research, 82% of companies have experienced unplanned downtime over the past three years and that unplanned downtime can cost a company as much as $260,000 an hour.

With this, it’s vital that manufacturers understand the risks and challenges associated with downtime and how a hybrid cloud infrastructure can be the solution.

Risks and challenges related to manufacturing downtimes

In manufacturing, risks related to downtime, specifically when caused by a breach, can result in substantial financial losses, including:

• Cost of recovery: When a data breach occurs, manufacturers must address potential lost data, which not only includes the cost associated with internal efforts but also costs with the potential need for external consultants or cybersecurity firms.
• Supply chain disruptions: Many modern manufacturing processes rely on integrated digital systems for inventory management, supply chain coordination, and production scheduling. A data breach can compromise these systems, causing interruptions that ripple through the supply chain. This can result in delays in parts delivery or raw material procurement, as well as negatively affect other companies within their supply chain.
• Legal liabilities: In the case of a breach involving sensitive customer or employee data, manufacturers could face legal claims, fines, and penalties. Compliance protection laws (such as GDPR or CCPA) are heavily enforced and failure to meet these requirements due to downtime or poor data security can result in expensive lawsuits, settlements, and regulatory fines.
• Production delays: Manufacturing operations rely heavily on continuous workflows and just-in-time production. Downtime halts production lines, causing delays in fulfilling orders and missing delivery deadlines, which can damage customer relationships and revenue streams.
• Lost revenue: Every minute of downtime translates to lost production, which directly impacts sales. For high-output facilities, the financial losses can quickly escalate into millions of dollars.

There is also the risk of reputational damage, which could result in:

• Loss of customer trust: Manufacturing downtime can significantly harm a company's reputation by eroding customer trust due to delays, inconsistent product quality, and missed deadlines. It can also damage relationships with suppliers and partners, reduce investor confidence, and attract negative media attention.
• Negative brand perception: Frequent or extended downtime may lead not just customers, but also the public to perceive the company as inefficient or unprofessional. If a manufacturer fails to provide clear communication regarding the downtime or its impact, it can amplify frustration and negative sentiment towards the brand, affecting future sales and market perception.

How a hybrid cloud strategy protects manufacturers from downtime repercussions

With the looming risks of downtime, it is critical that manufacturers look to get ahead of these threats rather than wait to react. The solution lies in transitioning to a hybrid cloud infrastructure. A hybrid cloud approach consolidates data into scalable storage, ensuring robust protection, and quick recovery to minimize disruption.

Podcast: Insights from our team of editors on how 2024 transformed manufacturing (Part 1)

Imagine a global manufacturing firm with facilities in both the U.S. and Europe. One of its sites in Spain experiences a breach and requires immediate review of critical data to resolve the issue. However, the legacy server storing that data is located in the U.S., making the data transfer to Spain a slow and cumbersome process. As a result, the Spanish site faces prolonged downtime, impacting productivity and operations.

With a hybrid cloud infrastructure, this scenario would play out very differently. All necessary data could be accessed instantly from Spain, ensuring seamless operations, zero downtime, and significantly enhanced productivity.

The benefits of a hybrid cloud infrastructure are numerous, highlighting features like:

• Built in backup and recovery: Hybrid cloud’s built-in backup ensures that companies can protect files and restore them quickly across dozens or even hundreds of locations. For today’s modern manufacturing environments, spread out across multiple continents, this means less project risk, and protection from potentially thousands of dollars of downtime due to a server or site outage. With this, manufacturing customers can reduce their Recovery Time Objective (RTO) by approximately 22 hours, presenting extremely positive business impact.
• Cost efficiency: With a hybrid cloud architecture, manufacturers could spend 50% less on primary storage. There has been an uptick in interest here due to file data growth vectors that can quickly force companies to hit hardware capacity constraints. This is one of the main use cases for manufacturing customers.
• Global collaboration: With a hybrid cloud solution, globally distributed engineering and manufacturing teams can collaborate on all files as if they were in the same office. For manufacturers with over 10,000 engineers and several sites spread across the globe, this seamless collaboration is a necessity and greatly increases productivity.

Unfortunately, cyberattacks directed at manufacturers are only becoming more common and more complex, and with the emergence of AI-enabled bad actors, the threats will only continue to rise. If there’s any time to transition to a more secure infrastructure, it’s now.

See also: State of Initiative Report 2024

Hybrid cloud technology is perfectly matched to address the needs of the modern global manufacturer by ensuring robust protection, quick recovery to minimize disruption, built in backup, cost efficiencies, and more.