If IT is “just a cost center,” why does every outage cost so much?
- Mike Farmer
- Dec 8
- 2 min read
“IT is an expense — we just need to keep it running.”
But here’s the contradiction:
The moment something breaks…
When email goes down…
When production stalls…
When a firewall update takes out connectivity…
Suddenly IT isn’t a cost center — it’s mission critical.
And the bill for downtime is always larger than the cost of doing IT right in the first place.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗠𝗕𝘀 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝘄:
Most companies built their IT approach 10 years ago…
…but the environments they’re running today look nothing like they did 10 years ago.
Now it’s:
Multiple cloud platforms
Anywhere-access expectations
Zero Trust requirements
24×7 monitoring
Security patches every single day
Compliance questions from insurers and auditors
Remote sites, wireless infrastructure, vendor connectivity
Your IT team is being asked to operate like an enterprise with the staffing and tools of a small business.
That gap is exactly where outages annd risk come from.
𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲:
• One person updates critical systems alone
• No redundancy or after-hours support
• Backups not tested regularly
• Patching gets skipped when support volume spikes
• Network changes occur without documentation
• Nobody is watching alerts at 2 a.m.
• Cyber insurers start rejecting coverage because “staffing is inadequate”
If IT is seen as an expense, it’s always understaffed.
And when it’s understaffed, it’s always unstable.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆:
IT is not a cost. It’s an operational dependency.
When one link fails, everything stops = production, sales, customer service, even payroll.
And here’s the part most companies eventually learn the hard way:
You can’t build operational resilience with a team of one.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗦𝗣 𝗳𝗶𝘅 (the part nobody explains well):
A good MSP isn’t replacing your internal IT. It’s stabilizing the parts of the job that break first:
✅ 24×7 monitoring and alert response
✅ Patch management that actually happens
✅ Documented processes and change control
✅ Backup testing and recovery validation
✅ After-hours support so your IT lead can breathe
✅ Redundancy so the business doesn’t rely on one person
✅ A senior bench for projects too complex for a single admin
This is how you stop treating IT like an expense and start treating it like the backbone of your operations.
𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗳𝗼𝗿 today:
Ask yourself:
“If our IT person wasn’t available for the next 48 hours, how much would break — and how much would it cost?”
If the answer makes you uncomfortable, it’s time to rethink how your IT is supported.