11 min read

Crucial Downtime Statistics That You Don’t Want to Miss

Every business has ups and downs, but the downs may cause more problems than you can imagine.

Therefore, you need to consider your business's status and be careful about all the threats. Or, let us put it more clearly, be aware of downtime possibilities!

To control the downtime process and prepare, you should first learn the downtime statistics.

From different perspectives, we have summoned the most significant statistics for you to get yourself prepared for estimates and everything in business.

What is Downtime?

Downtime is the time when the system is not working correctly or is out of activity.

Also, most researchers suggest that the downtime is about the system’s being available or not, so if a user cannot view the page, then downtime occurs.

A period of inactivity on your business can also affect your other activities, so you need to focus on monitoring your page.

What Causes Downtime?

controlling-statistics by a woman holding book and a smart phone at the same time

The table below shows the common causes and their downtime percentages based on what Integracon shares.

The Causes of Downtime
Causes How Much It Affects
 Software Failures

53%
 Cybersecurity Issues
52% 
 Network Outages 50% 
 Human Error 45% 
 Server Failures 45% 
 Storage Failures 42% 
 Hardware Failures 38% 
 App Errors 31% 
 Hardware Theft 24% 
 Power Outages 23% 
 Usage Surges 13% 
 Natural Disasters 10% 
 Third Party Supplier/
Cloud Outages
10% 
 Uncertain 7% 
 Others 2% 

Significant Downtime Statistics to Be Careful

2022 Annual Outage Analysis Report findings claim that it took more than 24 hours to avoid nearly 30% of the outages in 2021.

✶ The report also published the fact that there are expected to be at least 20 severe IT outages around the world in a year, which can trigger downtime.

✶ According to the article prepared by Shopping Cart Elite, if a website has gone through downtime, the SEO of the page will affect up to 30%.

This means a decrease in traffic to the page and the shattering of the current ranking.

downtime statistics on the screen of a laptop

✶ The downtime is not something that is impossible to deal with but the cost of downtime is high. What Lerner stated in his blog post, the average cost of the downtime is $5600 per minute.

✶ The average downtime cost is around $300.000 per hour, which is a high amount for businesses when these downtimes are immediate.

So, it is possible to put forward that you are lucky if your risk tolerance is high.

✶ People are not generally conscious enough to consider the importance of preventing downtime because 70% of the organizations have a lack of perception of assets for maintenance.

✶ Additionally, 19% of the B2B businesses are not aware of their lack of preparation for downtime by giving reasons:


The Answers The Rates
 Lacking knowledge of the downtime cost         38% 
 The unreadiness of IT team        28% 
 Not expecting the risk of downtime         28% 
 Limited time of finding solutions        13% 

The rate of unpreparedness of B2C businesses was measured at 27% since they did not foresee the situation.

✶ Based on the press release done in 2020, 17% of the small and midsize businesses lost revenue since downtime was unplanned and the businesses were blindsided.

✶ The damage of downtime is not only to the income but also to the customers. The press release included that 37% of the small and midsize businesses have experienced loss of customers because of downtime.

✶ Concerning the research done, downtime may not last long, yet it can still cost too much than necessary.

For example, 10% of small middle businesses claim that they lost $50.000 for an hour of downtime. And when the long-term outcome is considered, the company’s loss is somehow problematic.

In addition to this fact, the only thing that is lost is not money, but also the customers. Since customer retention is vital for all businesses, losing customers means losing reputation and identifiability.

checking downtime by two people on the computer

46% of the small and midsize businesses that lost customers are B2B organizations based on the notes of the press release.

✶ When the perspective turns to B2C businesses, the number of losing customers decreases to 25%.

✶ Regarding the study done by ServiceMax called “After The Fall: Cost, Causes and Consequences of Unplanned Downtime”, an unplanned downtime makes 29% of businesses prevent providing service or help to their customers, which leads them to the loss of customer trust and ruining the brand image.

✶ In accordance with the study of ServiceMax, in the previous years, 82% of the companies have gone through unplanned downtime in three years, and it cost $2 million by wasting around 4 hours of work.

✶ The risks of downtime for small and midsize businesses generally occur for specific reasons, according to Infrascale as ordered below.


The Risks of Downtime The Rates
 The disruption of business 29% 
 Lack of employee production 21% 
 The issue of brand image 16% 
 The expense 13% 

✶ If there is planned downtime, it has a cost for sure. However, planned downtime is ten times more profitable than unplanned downtime based on the critical findings shared on INTECH.

72% of organizations make preventing downtime their first priority because the results may cause more significant problems in the future.

To Avoid Downtime and Its Causes

After all these statistics, you may feel insecure about the future of your website; however, you don’t need to regard them as threats but as a warning.

statistics of downtime checked by a person displaying her hand and the numbers

Considering all these statistics, you have some steps to go to prevent any kind of downtime:

  • You should have a backup plan.
  • You should inform your team about the importance of downtime emergencies.
  • You should do routine tests to check up on the condition.
  • You should monitor the systems you have properly.
  • You should prioritize fixing programming issues.
  • You should prepare your strategy in case of any downtime.
  • You should keep your systems updated.

Instead of coping with all these criteria, it would be better to use some uptime monitoring tools to keep things under control.

Making this more organized for you to check your webpage, Websiteuptime.io is the easiest tool with highly customizable status pages and distinct features that helps improving of your page.

To Conclude

Downtime statistics that we have collected from distinct sources show that downtime can be affected by very different actions and leads the business to unwanted results.

All in all, uptime can be maintained with your effort and affection towards monitoring your webpages regularly.

Now, you need to feel lucky to know the statistics that might lead your business in the way of protecting your business and governing your actions.

Before leaving, we suggest you take a quick look at the frequently asked questions part in case you can realize something new to be fully ready.

We wish you safe and secure days in checking your pages and enlightening the future of your business.

FAQ

There may appear some questions in your mind about downtime after reading these significant findings; we have tried to share the most common question.

We hope these will help with your question marks about downtime statistics.

What Are the Types of Downtime?

There are two common types of downtime: planned and unplanned. During the planned downtime, the websites are kept a close watch. The planned downtime includes tests, checks, repairments, software controls, hardware upgradings, or routine maintenance. These are done on purpose, and the problems are fully solved, if there are any.On the other hand, unplanned downtime causes so much damage. Because of various hazardous causes, the unplanned downtimes are challenging to control, and the more the problem lasts, the worse effects are seen at the end.


What Are the Results of Downtime?

These results cannot make anyone happy, of course, since downtime leads to bigger problems than the current ones. For instance, loss of data, missing opportunities for collaboration with the other business, waste of time, damaged brand identity, inactivity of the employees, and so on. Therefore, it is highly recommended that in case of any downtime, these results should be solved, or some alternatives to fix them must be prepared in advance.

What is the Opposite of Downtime?

It is uptime. Uptime means availability and functionality since the downtime causes limitations. This is the status of the page that most people get used to and want to see. When a webpage is in uptime, there appears to be no problem. Also, we can accept that the website is working 99% perfectly.

How Can Downtime Be Measured?

Though the results will change according to the status of your business, it is necessary to multiply the minutes of downtime by the cost per minute so that you can reach the cost of downtime. You can determine the cost per minute based on the size of your company.

Is There Any Benefit of Downtime?

If the downtime is not planned, there is almost no benefit because that means the downtime can be out of control, and it will cost you more. Otherwise, if downtime is planned, there can be benefits, like monitoring your website when it is under control. That is how you can see your flaws that can cause downtime.

Other Related Content

If you want to learn more about monitoring your websites and more statistics to boost the performance of your brand, check these blog posts as well!