Small business owners must understand the cost of downtime. Knowing how an outage or cyberattack might impact your business helps you prepare more thoroughly. This information is also often a catalyst for business owners to dive into the ROI of backup and recovery systems.

So what is the average cost of downtime?

When we refer to downtime, we’re talking about an instance where your devices, systems, or servers are unavailable or compromised in a way that halts regular business operations. The cost of downtime varies wildly, depending on the reason for the outage and the size of a business. However, several studies exist that provide insight into the average cost of downtime. In 2019, Statista released a survey revealing that 25% of respondents reported their average cost of downtime was between 301,000 and 4000,000 dollars hourly. Another more recent study by the same organization said that the length of downtime with ransomware attacks as the cause could last an average of 22 days. Imagine the impact that would have on your business.

A great way to see a more accurate estimate for your company is to use one of the many free calculators offered by vendors. Datto’s Recovery Time & Downtime Cost Calculator is one such tool that can paint a clearer picture of the impact a downtime event could have on your business.

Once you have more customized estimates, it’s easier to decide what IT services to invest in to protect your business from such an event.

How can you mitigate downtime?

There are several ways your team can mitigate downtime, but truthfully, my strongest recommendation would be to work with a managed service provider. Even if it’s not our team, I highly recommend working with an IT professional to help you with the following:

1.) Setting up secure passwords and MFA on your business accounts, devices, and software (learn more about the importance of MFA in our blog – link to the MFA blog)

2.) Managing your IT infrastructure and strategy, including maintenance of your IT system updates, patches, and upgrades

3.) Developing your Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery strategy and managing the BCDR process should an issue occur

4.) Employee training on security protocols

5.) Cloud services and endpoint management

The above list outlines just a few of the items a seasoned IT professional can help you navigate and oversee. Having the right team to support you can be a real game-changer in preventing and dealing with downtime events.