Transcript 0:00 [gentle music] These are very real threats, and we have to acknowledge them. These are very real vulnerabilities that we are all facing right now, globally, today, 0:15 and it- and it's a challenge for all of us. 0:20 [upbeat music] Welcome to The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation, with your host, Peggy Smedley. 0:38 Hello, listeners, and welcome to today's edition of The Peggy Smedley Show. I'm your host, Peggy Smedley. We've all experienced downtime. 0:48 Our internet or electricity goes out, our social media crashes, or we have a data center outage. We've all been there, frustrated by the lack of connectivity. 1:02 I know I've been there, frustrated by the fact that we have workers who are on the clock but aren't able to work because we're waiting for our systems to go back up, frustrated by the fact that we are losing money by the minute. 1:19 Gartner says that the average cost of downtime is five thousand six hundred dollars per minute. Per minute. Certainly, there is a range depending on the business. We all know that. 1:33 But no matter the business, there's always some sort of cost to downtime. And let me tell you, this is only going to get worse before it gets better. 1:46 Downtime is going to happen more often, especially as we work, shop, and collaborate online. 1:52 In fact, a survey by Honeywell shows ninety-one percent of facility managers have experienced at least one disruptive incident during the last twelve months alone. 2:06 So let's dig into this topic for the first segment today. I'll highlight where we are today and give you some tips for how to become more resilient in the future. 2:20 But first, let's talk about the amazing guests I'm gonna have on the show. I'm gonna be talking with Grace Sosich, professor at USC Marshall School of Business, and we're gonna have an amazing discussion. 2:33 Then I'm gonna wrap up the show with Bill Mann, CEO of Styra. So first, let's dig into the Honeywell survey. 2:43 As I've mentioned at the onset of the show, ninety-one percent of managers have experienced at least one disruptive incident in the last twelve months. Think about that. Ninety-one percent. 2:58 Now, let's break that down even further. Fifty-one percent had an outage. Now, I've got a lot of numbers here, so stick around for the wh- as I get through this. Thirty-eight percent had a cyber or physical breach. 3:13 Now, that seems a bit low to me, right? I, I mean, when I think about that number. 3:17 But I can assure you that type of disruption is going to go up, especially if you've been listening to my show and all the guests I've had who've talked about cyberattacks and ransomware. 3:30 Finally, thirty-four percent experienced some other form of unplanned downtime. With all of this in mind, I can bet you... I can bet that you can guess what the top concerns are for s- facility managers. 3:48 Yep, uptime and cybersecurity. 3:52 Roughly ninety-three percent listed lockdown monitoring as a potential facility concern, and another seventy-two percent point to the potential for downtime and closure as another concern, while yet another seventy-two percent are concerned about operational technology cybersecurity. 4:19 Now finally, sixty-eight percent are overwhelmingly concerned about maintaining that uptime. Yep, keeping everything running. This is becoming a very real talking point for many managers these days. 4:37 So resiliency and sustainability are no longer nice things to have. They are now essential to everyday business. So let's talk about what can be done about all of this that we talk about every single day. 4:54 It's just the things that we're bouncing around and saying, "What do we do about it?" To start, we can look at using smart building solutions. 5:04 But there is still a very real gap here between what we know can help and what we are actually doing about it. 5:13 This survey shows that ninety-six percent of respondents indicate remote management is or would be important to their facility. Nearly everyone sees this as critical, as very important. 5:29 How many actually have a system in place? Now, this is the interesting number. Only thirty-four percent. Yep, you heard me right. Thirty-four percent. 5:40 If we all recognize this is a big problem, why are so few actually doing something about it? The survey also looks at the importance of sustainability for data centers. 5:54 More than a third of respondents have considered improving energy efficiency as one of their top prioritiesIn the next twelve to, let's say, even eighteen months, and another fifty-four percent want to be able to include the ability to reduce building energy use to support sustainability goals. 6:17 Now, if you ask me, we aren't doing enough. You hear me talk about this all the time. We need to do more to think about our data centers as resilient and sustainable facilities. 6:31 Smart building solutions are a great start, and we really need to be thinking about this, but I think there is more that needs to be done here when we think about all of the things that are-- we have to focus on. 6:45 This is something we need to talk about over on-- W- uh, I should say, that we actually do talk about on Construct Tech quite a bit. But the Resilient Design Institute explains it like this: 6:58 "Resilient design is the intentional design of buildings, landscapes, let's say communities and regions, in order to respond to natural man-made disasters." 7:14 Now, I, I, I really like the way they talk about that, and, and here's why. Because here's my opinion for today. We need our data centers to be able to regain functionality in the face of stress or disturbance. 7:31 We need to protect them against data breaches, let's say natural disasters, y- as we talk about climate change, and so much more every day that's happening around us in our world. 7:44 We need our data centers to withstand the climate challenges we have been facing not just today, but for decades, that we're seeing and that we're starting to understand what's happening to our ecosystem. 7:59 We need our data centers to continue to be functional no matter what the conditions. So here's my tips. I have a couple of them for you today, not just one, so this is maybe a little bit more interesting in today's show. 8:16 First, we need to recognize what are the vulnerabilities here. I think this is very important for us to understand. We need to acknowledge that cyber threats are real, 8:29 and every day the bad guys are out there, and they are doing more and more harm, and you can't ignore it. It's not gonna go away. And yes, they are going to impact our data centers in really, really significant ways. 8:48 We need to recognize climate change is causing an uptick in natural disasters. We can't ignore it anymore. We can't say it's not gonna happen. We can't close our eyes to it. 9:00 It's here, and climate change is happening every day in different parts of the world, in different regions around us. These are very real threats, and we have to acknowledge them. 9:14 These are very real vulnerabilities that we are all facing right now, globally, today, and it, and it's a challenge for all of us in every part of the w- every parts of the world, all the world. 9:32 None of us are immune to any of these things. So that's my first tip. Be aware of the threats. Acknowledge the threats. My second tip is do something about it. 9:49 Don't put your head under a pillow and close your eyes to it. We have to do something about it right now, collectively, collaboratively. Leverage community assets. Design with natural systems in mind. 10:05 We really have to think about what that means. It's very important, and it's very real. And take advantage of the technology that is available to you, to all of us. 10:21 A-All these amazing technology solutions to each one of us, each individual that we are out there, we all recognize that technology can help us achieve our goals, but we have to reach out and use the technology that is out there and leverage it. 10:40 This Honeywell survey shows us that. It opens us, our eyes up to what's available. 10:47 Nearly everyone recognizes technology would be important in their facility, and yet only thirty-four percent are actually doing something about it. 11:01 That's frightening if you think about, you know there's a problem, yet only thirty-four percent are doing something to actively change the situation. What does that tell us? 11:13 We can't live under a rock and ignore the problem. We need to start embracing this if we want to be more resilient and sustainable. 11:24 And here is one last thought I want to leave with you-- will leave with all of you today. For those of you who are already leveraging technologies, kudos to all of you. 11:35 You get it, and you're trying to improve it, and you're trying to do something about it. But keep this in mind. 11:43 While technology can certainly help us, resilience needs to be integrated into the culture and work practices of business. That's very, very essential. It's what I always say. 11:59 We can't just use technology for technology's sake.The same applies here. Resilience design of data centers need to focus on long-term objectives, 12:16 plan and walk the journey. It needs to be core to the business. Resiliency is needed now more than ever. What are you going to do about it? I mean, I want you to think about that very question. 12:34 Technology is a journey, and we all know how important and the importance of that journey. Recognize we need to walk the technology journey through the world of climate change. 12:48 It's not a, it's not going to be a smooth ride, but the terrain will certainly make it an interesting ride for all of us. We get that. So let's take this digital journey together. 13:03 Let's take it today, because when we do that, really wonderful, positive change is going to occur. 13:11 Well, as always, if you have thoughts on what we've talked about on today's show, please send me a tweet to continue this discussion on social media at connectedwmag. 13:23 I'd love to hear what you have to say, because it's together when we talk about these great ideas as we continue to make things better for all of us. All right, listeners, that's all the time I have for this segment. 13:34 Please check out our website at connectedworld.com or our show website at thepeggysemgleyshow.com. 13:41 All right, as always, we're going to take a quick commercial break, but, uh, remember, this is The Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. 13:51 And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. We'll be right back after this commercial break with some great guests, so stick around. We'll be right back. [outro music]
