There is no universal hourly cost of an IT outage. A short interruption can be manageable for one team and serious for another. A useful estimate starts with your own activities, the point in the working day and the practical alternatives available.
An honest model with visible assumptions is more useful than an impressive but unexplained downtime figure.
Describe a specific interruption
Choose a scenario such as unavailable email, an inaccessible order system or a site without connectivity. State its duration and timing. Identify who is affected and which activities stop. Avoid applying one assumed productivity loss to every employee. Some people may continue working, while others may need to repeat work later. A defined scenario is more credible than a single large figure with unclear assumptions.
Separate different types of impact
Consider staff time, delayed revenue, additional supplier costs and the work required to catch up. Distinguish delayed income from income that may be lost entirely. Record customer commitments and operational constraints without pretending every consequence can be given an exact value. Involve finance and process owners in the estimate. Make the assumptions visible so the model can be challenged and improved.
Compare practical workarounds
Ask what people could do during the interruption. A temporary location, alternative connection or manual process may reduce impact, but only if staff know how to use it. Include its costs and limitations. Consider how information collected manually would be reconciled afterwards. A workaround is part of a continuity plan; it should not be treated as a complete answer simply because it sounds possible in a meeting.
Use the estimate to choose priorities
Compare the scenario with the cost and operational effort of proposed improvements. Consider prevention, recovery and temporary working arrangements together. Focus first on changes that address important dependencies or a clearly identified gap. Revisit the estimate when volumes, systems or customer commitments change. The model is a decision aid, not a forecast that an outage will have exactly the same financial effect every time.
PUT IT INTO PRACTICE
Your starting checklist.
Use these prompts to prepare your next decision or conversation.
YOUR NEXT STEP WITH IT MOUNTAIN
Turn the question into a plan.
Bring your business-critical activities to IT Mountain. Discuss which recovery and continuity improvements deserve attention first.
