News and Insights – March 2019

The True Cost of Downtime

Welcome to our deep dive edition for March. Downtime may seem like a rare inconvenience, but in truth, it’s one of the most damaging IT issues a business can face. Whether it’s an email outage, a failed server, or a cyberattack—every minute costs money, productivity, and trust. This month, we investigate the real cost of downtime for New Zealand’s SMBs, and how to prepare for it.

The True Cost of Downtime

Many business owners underestimate the financial and reputational toll that IT disruptions can cause. Based on global and local data, even a single hour of downtime can cost an SMB between NZD $1,000–$8,000 depending on industry and size.

But costs go beyond dollars:

• Lost Productivity: Employees wait for systems to come back online, interrupting workflows.
• Client Confidence: Customers notice when systems fail, impacting future business.
• Regulatory Exposure: If data is lost or inaccessible, you may be liable for privacy or compliance breaches.
• Recovery Expenses: Bringing systems back often involves extra labour, consulting, or emergency resources.

Common causes of downtime include:

• Server or infrastructure failure
• Power or internet outages
• Human error (accidental deletion, misconfiguration)
• Ransomware or cyber incidents
• Lack of tested backups or failover processes

Planning for downtime is not about paranoia—it’s about resilience. Here is the Downtime Impact Assessment Template to help you understand where your biggest risks lie and how to mitigate them.