Few things hurt a business faster than downtime - but with the right safeguards, it's entirely preventable.
At Ratcliff IT, two decades of hands-on experience have shown us that downtime rarely happens by chance. Whether it’s a missed update or failing hardware, there’s always a cause, and always a way to stay ahead of it.
In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at what IT downtime is, why it’s more costly than it seems, and how you can keep your business running without interruption.
What is IT Downtime?
IT downtime is any period when your systems, networks, or applications stop working as they should, preventing your team from completing normal tasks. It can be planned, such as scheduled maintenance or software updates, or unplanned, like sudden server crashes, power outages, or cyber security incidents that bring operations to a halt.
In everyday business terms, downtime looks like slow systems, frozen screens, or being locked out of essential tools. It might mean staff can’t log in to cloud platforms, customers can’t place orders online, or an email server suddenly goes offline in the middle of the day.
The Most Common Causes of IT Downtime
IT downtime is usually the result of a few familiar issues that can often be prevented with the right systems and planning:
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Hardware or software failures – Ageing servers or unpatched software are among the top causes of unplanned downtime. Over time, performance declines, updates get missed, and systems become more prone to crashes.
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Cyber attacks and security breaches – Phishing emails, ransomware, and malware can shut down entire networks quickly. Once inside, attackers can force systems offline.
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Power outages or internet connectivity issues – Wi-Fi and power issues are something most businesses have experienced, but with the right setup, they're both preventable.
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Human error and poor maintenance – Mistakes like deleting critical files or skipping updates are common causes of downtime. These errors often occur when teams are stretched thin or don't have the right procedures in place.
What Are the Hidden Costs of IT Downtime?
A short spell of downtime might not seem like much, but it can have wider impacts on your team, your customers, and your bottom line.
Productivity Loss
You’ve probably experienced how IT downtime can bring projects to a standstill. In 2024, a major CrowdStrike software outage caused widespread IT failures across organisations worldwide - causing doctors to be unable to write urgent referral letters for several days.
Even though most businesses won’t face disruption on this scale, it highlights how dependent we all are on technology, and how even short periods of downtime can have a ripple effect across everyday operations.
Compliance Risks
Under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act, every business has a legal duty to keep personal data secure. Downtime can happen as a result of a cyber attack - and that can mean dealing with data breaches as well as system outages.
Revenue Loss
Downtime hits profits directly. For many businesses, even one hour offline can mean hundreds of pounds lost, plus extra costs for emergency fixes or replacements.
Reputational Damage
Clients expect reliability. Even brief disruptions can affect how customers perceive your brand, especially in sectors built on customer trust.
Recovery Costs
When systems go down, getting everything back up and running takes time and money. Staff might stay late to catch up, extra technical help might be needed, and lost data has to be recovered. These hidden recovery costs are easy to miss, but they can have just as much impact as the downtime itself.
How to Calculate the Cost of IT Downtime
A simple way to estimate the cost is with this formula:
Downtime Cost = (Lost Revenue + Labour Cost + Recovery Cost)
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Lost revenue – This represents the income your business misses out on while systems are down. It’s most relevant if downtime directly prevents you from bringing in revenue (for example, if clients can’t access services or transactions can’t be processed).
To estimate it, divide your average monthly turnover by the number of working hours in a month to get your hourly revenue. Then, multiply that by the number of hours of downtime.
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Labour cost – The total hourly rate of affected employees multiplied by the time they’re unable to work.
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Recovery cost – The expense of technical support, repairs, or overtime needed to restore normal operations.
Example:
If 20 employees earning £25 an hour can’t work for one hour, that’s £500 in labour costs (20 × £25).
If your business typically earns around £600 an hour based on average monthly turnover, that’s another £600 in lost revenue.
Finally, include £300 in recovery costs for technical support or overtime to fix the issue.
Add it all together and that single hour of downtime could cost your business £1,400.
How to Prevent IT Downtime
The best way to avoid IT downtime is to be proactive. Start with the basics: keep software up to date, check your equipment regularly, and back up your data so it’s safe if something goes wrong. Many problems happen because systems are old or updates have been missed. It also helps to have a backup option, like an extra internet connection or a spare server, so your business can stay online if your main system fails.
People are just as important as the technology they use. According to the 2025 UK Government Cyber Breaches Survey, 85% of UK businesses experienced phishing attacks - scam emails that trick people into sharing passwords or clicking harmful links.
These scams can cause extensive downtime by locking users out of systems or spreading malicious software, and they’re becoming increasingly sophisticated, with criminals now using AI tools to imitate real people or trusted businesses.
Regular staff training helps reduce these risks by giving employees the confidence to spot suspicious messages and know what to do next.
Prevent IT Downtime Before It Starts With Proactive IT Support
With proactive managed IT support, potential problems are fixed before anyone notices, updates run smoothly behind the scenes, and your team stays focused on getting things done.
Here's what that looks like with Ratcliff IT:
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Our remote monitoring tools constantly scan your network for thousands of potential issues, alerting us before they affect your team. We also carry out daily backups to ensure you can perform a restore if needed.
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If something does go wrong, our London-based Service Desk is ready to step in. Because we already know your setup, our engineers can act quickly, with 90% of support tickets resolved the same day.
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Switching to Ratcliff IT is simple and stress-free - we make onboarding seamless, with zero downtime.
“When we moved our email across to Office 365, it was almost like it didn’t happen. We were amazed — the move was perfect!”
– Lauren Creswell, Office Manager, Triton Building Restoration
Explore our IT support services for London businesses and gain the confidence that you're one step ahead of downtime.
Frequently Asked Questions
We've answered the most common questions on IT downtime below.
What is Downtime in IT?
Downtime in IT happens when your systems, software, or network stop working - fully or partially - interrupting business operations and leading to lost productivity. It could be unexpected downtime from a power cut, system crash, or cyber attack, or planned maintenance that takes systems offline.
What Does 98% Uptime Mean?
A 98% uptime rate means your systems could be unavailable for around 2% of the year - roughly seven days of downtime. For businesses relying on technology to stay connected, that’s a full week of potential disruption.
Our approach at Ratcliff IT is to prevent that by keeping your systems healthy around the clock. Our preventative maintenance approach is designed to mitigate downtime and protect business continuity.
What is the Most Common Cause of Downtime?
Many downtime incidents are caused by cyber security attacks, human error, or hardware failure, all of which can lead to network downtime and reduced IT availability.
Often, these IT issues arise because internal resources are stretched too thin to monitor and maintain systems effectively. Proactive IT support changes that, identifying risks early, preventing interruptions, and keeping your team focused on what really matters.
