The era of the Always-On business has emerged, thanks to a rise in improved connectivity and devices that allow easy and affordable access to the Internet. Today’s mobile work force and demanding consumer expectations have created a world where constant access to products and services across time zones is a norm that we take for granted.

Consequently, according to Rawad Zaki, territory manager, Saudi Arabia at Veeam Software, organizations in Saudi now face the daunting task of recovering any IT service or application within minutes — creating what is collectively known as availability — a buzzword that is increasingly being used in IT circles. To achieve greater speed and efficient use of existing resources, many organizations in the country have switched to modern data centers that are built on virtualization, modern storage solutions and cloud-based services.

Yet, according to Veeam’s fourth annual Data Centre Availability Report 2014, organizations still experience unplanned application downtime. These downtimes occur more than once a month on average, costing organizations between $1.4 million and $2.3 million annually in lost revenue — not to mention the decreased productivity and missed opportunities.

Regardless of whether it’s a consumer-facing organization, a mobile service provider, or the FTSE 100, the days of organizations experiencing any downtime while customers remain patient are over. Organizations now risk losing revenue, customer confidence and worse, reputation.

With Availability seen to be mission-critical for smooth business operations, organizations ensure that they can remain Always-On and keep up with adopting the latest developments in cloud computing, mobility and the Internet of Things, as well as manage big data and software defined networking.

In many countries across the world, the explosion in mobility has become the main driver of cloud’s evolution. Thanks to increasing mobility, the rise of consumers’ demands has driven cloud adoption.