Downtime for one hour can cost businesses $1m or more - report

All executive-level employees surveyed had experienced downtime and more than half said it happens at least once a month

One hour of down time can cost a business $1m (£594,000) or more, according to the results of a survey conducted by web software firm Globalscape.

In the survey of 283 IT professionals and end-users, the company found that of the enterprise employees who estimated the financial cost of downtime on their organisation, 60 per cent said that an hour without critical systems cost their company between $250,000 (£150,000) and $500,000 (£300,000). One in six reported that a single hour of downtime can cost $1m (£594,000) or more.

The survey found that nearly 90 per cent of organisations have unexpectedly lost access to critical systems and nearly a third deal with downtime issues every month.

Of the executive-level employees surveyed by Globalscape, 100 per cent said they had experienced downtime, and 56 per cent said it happens at least once a month.

"Downtime, while understood to be tremendously costly and frustrating, has become commonplace and even expected in the enterprise," said James Bindseil, president and CEO of Globalscape. "Often, downtime can be avoided, and companies should expect more from their vendors."

Data loss is a common consequence of core systems going down, with nearly half of all employees stating that they've lost important data and emails in this period. The hardest hit are senior-level executives, with 75 per cent of them stating that unexpected downtime has caused them to lose important communications and data.

Some 76 per cent of respondents said downtime frustrates their end-users and 52 per cent said their workforce has been unable to send or receive critical, timely files as a result of downtime.

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