If the relational database of a company is not available this usually affects the most sensitive part of the infrastructure. An example from the industrial context: Assuming an automotive manufacturing plant produces 700 vehicles per day at an average selling price of $30,000 per vehicle, a failure of the production database would mean a financial loss of $875,000 per hour. If recovery time is longer than one hour, the losses can quickly exceed the limit of one million.

In the service sector denial of services mainly causes reputational damage. This however can very quickly result in cancellations from the customers, likewise causing losses in turnover. Depending on the duration of the failure great losses are incurred which can only be prevented by optimal database security.

A combination of backup and database archiving can be helpful in this respect. While the backup is required for the short-term recovery of data, database archiving supports performance and stability of the productive database from the outset, relieving it of old data which are no longer required. In this process active data are available faster because the indices work more efficiently and therefore deliver the desired result more quickly.

Other benefits of database archiving are the search by time periods as well as compliance for databases containing data with statutory retention periods. No company can afford a database failure in this day and age. The costs and the reputational damage can be avoided with comparatively low investment. In addition to database archiving CSP considers a backup to be an optimal supplement which is essential in any case.

Database failures for service providers
Even if specific losses through database failures are harder to estimate in the service sector than in industrial operations, they also depend on their databases to a high degree. If for instance the online banking service of a bank is not available, the customers will be angry and in the worst case will change to a competitor. A database failure can also cause problems in the telecommunications sector if for example the billing management depends on the database: On the one hand this can massively affect the generation of bills and in the worst case result in financial losses. On the other hand customer requests will not be processed. As a result frustrated customers and negative press can quickly lead to a bad image. The situation is similar for helpdesks where no information or support can be supplied without database access. Here as well an initially well-meaning user can quickly turn into a dissatisfied customer. Access to archived database content is still quickly and easily available on demand – even if the database structure was changed in the meantime.

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