Yet reliability problems are persistent even in industries such as finance, where a considerable amount of time, money and pressure from regulators and customers require investments in network technology and IT infrastructure. They can cost a company $5,000 to $10,000 a minute, researcher Gartner Inc. estimates. Advertisement Today’s problems with reliability are more fundamental, a reflection of the complexity of contemporary networks, the volume of data, the pace of change, insufficient organizational and cultural practices, and a legacy of arcane and poorly written business software that traditionally put little emphasis on usability or customer experience. Outages persist because of the interdependency of computer systems, fueled by the rise of digital services across all industries, particularly those with customer-facing software such as mobile apps, according to former NYSE Euronext CIO Paul Cassell, now CIO of Pico Quantitative Trading LLC.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/spate-of-tech-outages-yesterday-signal-an-era-has-ended-1436464561?mod=LS1