Why Does My Business Need These Services?

Most small businesses don’t plan for an IT problem until it is already costing them money. A network goes down at the busiest hour, a computer fails with the only copy of a file on it, or an employee clicks one convincing email. The research below shows how often this happens to businesses like yours, and what it costs.

What network outages and downtime cost

When your network, internet, or key systems are down, your team can’t work and your customers can’t reach you or complete a purchase in your store.

  • In a 2025 survey of 715 small and mid-size businesses by Calyptix and ITIC, 37% said one hour of downtime costs $1,000 to $5,000. For 8%, it costs more than $25,000 an hour, and some reported more than $100,000. (Calyptix/ITIC)
  • Uptime Institute’s 2026 outage analysis found that outages tied to fiber and connectivity problems are rising and are more likely to last longer. In its survey, 57% said their most recent major outage cost more than $100,000. Those respondents are data center operators, so treat the dollar figure as a sign of how costly outages are, not a typical small-business number. (Uptime Institute)
  • Verizon found that availability was affected in 53% of the security incidents it analyzed, meaning systems were knocked offline or data was unusable. (Verizon 2026 DBIR)

Computer problems that slow your team down

Computer trouble rarely looks dramatic. It looks like a machine that is slow, a drive that quietly fails, or updates that never get installed.

  • Backblaze tracked more than 344,000 hard drives in 2025 and measured an annual failure rate of 1.36%. That is roughly one drive in every 73 failing each year, in a professionally run data center. (Backblaze)
  • Verizon’s 2026 report found that exploiting unpatched software is now the most common way attackers get in, at 31% of breaches. Only 26% of critical known vulnerabilities were fully fixed, and the median time to fully fix one was 43 days. (Verizon 2026 DBIR)
  • In the Calyptix/ITIC survey, 75% of respondents said human error is a major contributor to security vulnerabilities. (Calyptix/ITIC)

Cybersecurity: Small businesses are targets too

Attackers don’t just go after large enterprises — smaller businesses are often easier targets. A single incident can mean lost revenue, lost customer trust, and days (or weeks) of downtime.

  • Ransomware appeared in 88% of small and mid-size business breaches in Verizon’s 2025 report, compared with 39% at large organizations. (Verizon)
  • Verizon’s 2026 report found ransomware in 48% of all breaches, up from 44%, and the human element involved in 62%. (Verizon 2026 DBIR)
  • Recovering from a ransomware attack cost an average of $1.53 million, not counting any ransom. For businesses with 100 to 250 employees, the average was $638,536. Just over half of victims (53%) were back to normal within a week. (Sophos, State of Ransomware 2025)
  • The average data breach now costs $4.99 million globally, a record and 12% higher than the year before. That figure covers organizations of all sizes. (IBM, Cost of a Data Breach 2026)
  • Cybercrime losses reported to the FBI reached $20.877 billion in 2025, up 26%. Business email compromise, where criminals impersonate a vendor or executive to redirect payments, accounted for about $3 billion. (FBI IC3 2025 report)

What this means for your business

Preventing these problems takes steady, routine work. That work includes patching, monitoring, tested backups, a well-built network, and a team that knows your setup. Most small businesses don’t have someone whose full-time job is to do it. That is the gap CedarStone IT fills.

  • Systems Issues: fast troubleshooting and maintenance for every Windows and Mac machine.
  • Network & Wi-Fi: networks designed, installed, and maintained to stay fast and stay up.
  • Cybersecurity: protection that works before the bad day, not after.
  • Backup & Disaster Recovery: plans built and tested before you ever need them.
  • Point of Sale: setup and support so checkout stays fast and reliable.

Not sure where your business stands? Call (678) 940-4063 or email info@cedarstoneit.com to talk with a representative at CedarStone IT.

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