A comprehensive ranking from Vertiv (formerly Emerson Network Power), shows that among the most crucial industries in the world, many associated with everyday workings of FMs are at the very top of the food chain.
Utilities, including electricity, gas, nuclear power and water treatment, are the most critical industries in the world according to the analysis.
“Many industries have protections against loss of utility service, such as UPS and backup generators, and these are very effective against short-term and isolated disruptions," says research panelist Tom Nation. "But when large portions of the grid go down, as happened in the blackout that affected the Northeast United States in 2003, the disruptions are so widespread that our entire society is paralyzed.”
Industries dire to FM close behind Utilities at #1 on the list include: Telecommunications at #3; Cloud and Colocation Services at #5; and Smart Cities at #7.
In developing the rankings, the panel set criteria encompassing the range of potential impacts from the loss of availability of critical systems and weighted them based on the severity of the impact. These criteria then were used to create a criticality rubric the panel used to score the industries, which then were ranked by their average scores.
“If there is a common theme at the top of this list, it is the interconnectedness of these industries,” says Jack Pouchet, vice president of market development with Vertiv. “These sectors are important to the foundation of today’s society, and downtime in any of these areas can reverberate across industries and around the globe.
To see the PDF in full, please click here.
