Despite big investments in infrastructure and redundancy, unplanned downtime continues to drain productivity, profits, and trust.
In this article, we’ll break down what downtime actually costs, where those costs show up, and how to reduce the risk with a focused recovery strategy.
The downtime reality
Today’s business environment runs around the clock. Customers expect instant access, teams rely on cloud tools, and transactions flow continuously. If your systems stop, business disruption occurs, and everything else does too.
Some outages are minor. Others can halt operations for hours or even days. Network outages are a common culprit and can severely impact continuous service. The longer the disruption, the greater the impact.
Downtime affects more than your IT team. It puts your entire business at risk.
Downtime risks
Downtime risks are a reality for every organisation, regardless of size or industry. The average cost of downtime is estimated at $5,600 per minute, but for some sectors, such as finance, this figure can soar to $10,000 per minute or more. These staggering numbers show how quickly downtime can escalate from a minor inconvenience to a major financial crisis.
Many organisations underestimate these risks, often neglecting to implement a comprehensive disaster recovery plan or regular system backups. Without safeguards, businesses leave themselves exposed to significant costs and operational disruptions.
Proactive monitoring, frequent testing of disaster recovery solutions, and a well-documented recovery plan are essential to reduce downtime risks and ensure a swift recovery when incidents occur.
What downtime really costs
It depends on your industry, size, and the criticality of the impacted systems. But even conservative estimates can be staggering. Downtime costs are often calculated based on a company’s average hourly revenue, especially during peak periods when the financial impact is highest.
Here’s what a minute of downtime could cost based on 2025 data:
|
System type |
Estimated downtime cost per minute |
| Mid‑sized businesses (average) | $5,600 – $9,000 |
| Large enterprises | $9,000 – $23,750 |
| High‑impact outages (median) | Up to $33,333 |
SOURCE: IT for Less - The True Cost of IT Downtime, New Relic - State of Observability Report 2025, Erwood Group – Cost of Downtime in 2025
Hourly downtime costs can quickly escalate. Just one hour of downtime can result in significant financial losses. Multiply that by eight hours or three days, and the hit to revenue, reputation, and recovery becomes severe.
Soft costs are just as damaging
Some costs are immediate and visible:
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Lost sales
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Emergency IT response
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Staff overtime
But downtime also creates hidden costs:
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Damaged reputation
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Lost customer trust
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Frustrated employees
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Missed opportunities
These hidden costs are harder to measure but often more damaging long term. Lost trust can take months or years to rebuild.
Understanding RTO and RPO
Two key metrics define the real impact of downtime:
- Recovery Time Objective (RTO): How quickly can you recover? This determines how long your business can afford to be offline.
- Recovery Point Objective (RPO): How much data can you afford to lose? This defines the point in time you need to restore to, influenced by backup frequency and practices.
The shorter your RTO and RPO, the better your resilience. But achieving fast recovery requires planning.
Why outages still happen
Despite advances in automation, cloud, and infrastructure design, human error remains the leading cause of IT outages. A TechRepublic report confirms that over 80% of unplanned outages stem from configuration mistakes, poor change control, or failed deployments. Cyberattacks also contribute through malicious activities like infiltrating networks or launching ransomware.
You cannot eliminate all risk, but you can plan for it, mitigate it, and recover fast.
Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) helps you recover your entire IT environment quickly, not just your data.
At The Missing Link, our DRaaS platform offers:
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2-hour SLA-backed recovery time
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No upfront infrastructure investment
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Three scalable service tiers
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Built-in monitoring, testing, and reporting for compliance
Whether you face cyberattacks, system failure, or natural disaster, DRaaS gives you confidence that your business can bounce back fast.
Best practices to mitigate downtime
Minimising downtime risks starts with proven best practices:
- Maintain a business continuity plan for protecting and recovering critical systems and data.
- Schedule regular backups, proactive monitoring, and maintenance.
- Define clear RTO and RPO to guide your disaster recovery strategy.
- Invest in reliable software, keep systems updated, and train staff to respond effectively.
By understanding the costs and risks of downtime, organisations can take proactive steps to prevent outages, lower costs, and ensure business continuity.
Plan for resilience
Recovery is more than a technical task, it is a business priority. With the right planning and processes in place, you can protect your business from the unexpected and recover quickly when downtime occurs.
Want to know what downtime could cost your business or how quickly you could be back online? Talk to our team today.
If you liked this article, you may also like:
Five reasons your business might need Disaster Recovery as a Service
Disaster Recovery RTO and RPO — two vital ingredients for the lasting health of your business
