Network Outage Disrupts NYC's EMS 911 System

Last week the city of New York experienced an unplanned network outage that disrupted its EMS 911 system.

The outage knocked the system offline for about 30 minutes. During that time, medical dispatchers were unable to access computer systems while they answered emergency calls.

According to FDNY spokesman Frank Dwyer, all calls were answered and dispatched despite losing access to the system.

The outage occurred around 4 p.m., while maintenance work was being conducted on the network. As of right now, it is still unclear why the network outage happened. The department, it should be noted, has experienced similar outages in the past.

As this example shows, network downtime is a serious threat to business continuity. Organizations relying on connected systems — especially emergency response departments — must have solutions in place to proactively detect, fix and prevent threats from impacting daily operations. Real-time network monitoring is a fundamental requirement in today’s always-on environment where downtime is not an option.

With the new year approaching, it’s a good time to reflect on the health and stability of your own organization’s network. If you lack the internal resources to properly maintain your network, consider working with a third party managed services provider (MSP). An MSP can provide everything from rapid-response troubleshooting to full service maintenance. It’s a flexible, low-risk and cost-effective way to protect your network from unplanned outages.