In today’s connected world it is critical that all transactions are running as efficiently as possible, and for organisations such as banks, ensuring any cash and payment services are working at all times is vital.

Over the last nine months we have seen many technical slip ups which have cost banks a fortune in damaged reputation – granted some have been bigger than others, but as we have seen, even the smallest slip up can have lasting ramifications for the business and of course its customers.

With proactive monitoring solutions now more accessible than ever, it’s astounding that technical issues actually lead to these kind of faults in modern organisations and should act as a warning sign to any business not just those in the financial sector.

The simple fact is downtime is something that can easily be avoided and organisations need to ensure they are utilising the technology available to them to prevent similar issues occurring in the future. By putting in place intelligent proactive measures any issues can be spotted early, minimising potential damage and reducing the risk of critical failure.

Any downtime to key services, such as a payment services, can cause severe disruption for both customers and the business alike. Businesses today need to be able to see, predict and fix issues in real-time to prevent problems before they occur, and with an organisation’s customer service, revenue and ultimately its reputation at stake, proactive monitoring and troubleshooting is something they can’t afford not to have.

Through network-based Application Performance Management (APM) IT managers can monitor every tier of the business network to not only spot, but to diagnose and prevent an issue from ever occurring – something which when millions of pounds are on the line, would be incredibly useful.

Whilst we haven’t seen a high street bank suffer any major issues in the last few months, for those who continue to fly their systems in the wind of risk, anything could happen and the correct action must be taken to ensure that not only is downtime eliminated, but that systems are connected, if not for the good of the business but for the customer.