Guarding Against Global IT Outages: A Blueprint for Digital Resilience

There is an accelerating trend of global disruptions becoming increasingly digital in nature. This trend of global IT outages is indicative of deepseated vulnerabilities and technical lapses in the interconnected networks of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). Drawing on the theoretical stream of digital disconnection, this paper offers an empirical account of the causes and detailed cases of prominent global IT outages in the recent past. The cases offer insights into the intricacies of IT meltdowns as well as ensuing ramifications on different sectors globally. Subsequently, it lays down a set of viable policy measures that may be undertaken at global, national, organisational and individual levels to prevent the likelihood of IT blackouts in future and thereby maintain digital resilience in the DPI worldwide. The paper essentially contributes to the relatively scant literature on IT outages – a subject of paramount significance in an increasingly interconnected world of Industry 4.0.