And when it stops, so does everything else.
An unexpected IT outage can freeze operations, prevent employees from doing their jobs, halt revenue, and in serious cases, cause lasting damage to customer trust and business continuity. The financial impact is rarely obvious until it is too late.
This calculator is designed to give you a clearer picture of what a downtime event could actually cost your business. By entering a few key figures like your data volume, backup frequency, response times, and staffing costs, you can generate a realistic estimate of your recovery time and the financial exposure that comes with it. Use it as a starting point for an honest conversation about your current backup and recovery strategy.
Estimated Hourly Revenue Cost:
Estimated Minimum Downtime (Hours):
Response Time Cost (cost of just the notification/response window):
Recovery Cost (cost of the data-transfer phase only):
Per-Backup Failure Cost (cost incurred if a backup attempt fails):
Total Downtime Cost (total cost of an outage not including backup failures):
The results produced by this calculator are estimates based on the inputs you provide and standard industry assumptions.
They are intended to illustrate potential exposure and do not represent a calculation of actual losses.
A backup existing is not the same as a backup working. Recovery time estimates on paper rarely survive contact with a real incident. That is why the most important action you can take after reviewing these results is not to buy a product — it is to have a conversation with someone who can look at your specific environment and tell you honestly where the gaps are.
Our team works with businesses of all sizes to assess backup and recovery readiness, identify vulnerabilities before they become disasters, and put practical, cost-effective solutions in place. A consultation with us costs nothing, and the picture it gives you is worth far more than any estimate a calculator can provide.
Whether your results surprised you or confirmed what you already suspected, we can help you understand what they mean in practice and what it would take to meaningfully reduce your risk. In this consultation, we will:
Review your current backup and recovery setup
Identify where your real exposure lies based on your environment
Walk you through the options available — including BCDR solutions that can bring your recovery window down to minutes, not hours
Give you a clear, no-pressure recommendation for next steps
There is no commitment required.
Just a straightforward conversation about your business and what it would take to keep it running when something goes wrong.
Fill out the form below and one of our team will be in touch within one business day to schedule your consultation at a time that suits you.
Why we ask: The volume of data stored across your critical business systems directly determines how long a full restoration will take. A business with 500 GB of data will recover significantly faster than one with 10 TB — and that difference translates directly into hours of downtime and dollars of loss.
Why we ask: Your backup frequency sets the maximum amount of data you could lose in any given outage — this is known as your Recovery Point Objective (RPO). If your backups run every 12 hours and a failure occurs just before the next scheduled backup, you could lose up to 12 hours of work, transactions, and records. It also determines the cost exposure if a backup attempt itself fails. If you do not currently take regular backups, your risk profile is substantially higher.
Why we ask: Even with a perfect backup, recovery cannot begin until someone is aware of the problem and takes action. This field captures the window between an outage occurring and your IT service provider actively beginning the recovery process. This includes the time it takes to notice the issue, report it, assess the situation, and access backups. Every minute in this window is downtime — and downtime costs money.
Why we ask: If your backups are stored in the cloud, the speed at which data can be downloaded from your cloud backup location is a major factor in recovery time. A slower internet connection means a longer restore window. If you are unsure of your download speed, you can test it using a service such as Speedtest.net. If your backups are stored locally or you entered 500 Mbps, your results will reflect a local transfer rate.
Why we ask: During a technology outage, virtually every employee is affected to some degree. Work stops, productivity drops, and wages continue to be paid regardless. This field helps calculate the full people-cost of an outage, based on the assumption that normal business operations are not possible during the downtime window.
Why we ask: Even when systems are down and employees cannot work, payroll obligations continue. This figure — broken down to an hourly rate — forms the basis of your per-hour staffing cost during an outage.
Why we ask: Beyond salary, every employee carries overhead costs: office space, utilities, equipment, insurance, and more. These costs do not stop during an outage either. As a general rule, overhead tends to run at roughly 50% of average salary, though this varies by business.
Why we ask: For most businesses, an outage directly interrupts the ability to generate revenue — sales cannot be processed, services cannot be delivered, and customer-facing operations halt. This figure is used to calculate the average hourly revenue at risk during any period of downtime.
