Report by Splunk

The Hidden Costs of Downtime

24 FINDINGSPublished May 19, 2026
View Original Report →

Key Findings

Organizations experience an average 3.4% drop in stock price following a downtime event.

Shareholder ValueStock MarketDowntime CostsOperational Resilience

The average cost of downtime for organizations is $15,000 per minute.

Downtime CostsFinancial ImpactOperational Resilience

Downtime costs an organization $95 million in lost revenue annually, nearly double the level in 2024.

Revenue LossDowntime CostsOperational Resilience

71% of technology executives rate publicly disclosing a data breach as very or prohibitively disruptive, up from 23% in 2024.

Data BreachesData Breach Consequences

90% of tech leaders report increased demand for customer support during downtime.

Customer SupportOperational ImpactDowntime

65% of technology leaders invest in AI-powered observability to gain deeper, real-time insights into their digital ecosystems.

AI ObservabilityInvestment

85% of technology leaders prioritize AI-driven security automation.

AI SecuritySecurity Automation

Aggregate unplanned downtime costs for Global 2000 companies total $600 billion annually, representing a 50% increase in two years.

Downtime CostsGlobal EnterprisesOperational Resilience

89% of tech leaders cite the need for large numbers of personnel to fix downtime issues.

Downtime ImpactOperational Resilience

Nearly 20% of marketing professionals report it takes an entire quarter to recover brand health after remediation.

Brand RecoveryMarketingDowntime

98% of organizations with the lowest downtime costs confirm end-to-end visibility is very or extremely important for reducing incidents.

ObservabilityOperational Resilience

56% of security leaders now experience cybersecurity-related downtime caused by SaaS and other third-party application issues often or very often, nearly triple the rate in 2024.

Third-Party RiskDowntimeOperational Resilience

66% of ITOps and engineering leaders are prioritizing investments in automation to mitigate the risks of human error.

AutomationHuman ErrorInvestment

81% of technology leaders cite customer loss as a consequence of downtime.

Customer ChurnDowntime ImpactOperational Resilience

68% of technology leaders express concern that their AI agents will behave unpredictably.

AI GovernanceRiskAI Risk

About three-fourths of ITOps and engineering leaders identify end-to-end observability as their top investment priority to improve infrastructure resilience.

ObservabilityInvestment

All technology leaders report their organization has experienced some form of AI-related downtime.

AIDowntimeOperational Resilience

47% of technology leaders report that customers are often or very often the first to detect service degradation or outages.

Customer ExperienceService DegradationOperational Resilience

Ransomware payouts now average $40 million, nearly triple their level in 2024.

RansomwareFinancial Impact

Regulatory fines average $51 million per organization.

Regulatory FinesCompliance

57% of technology executives view regulatory fines as very or prohibitively disruptive.

Regulatory FinesCompliance

36% of security leaders say downtime is often or very often misclassified as an IT issue.

Security OperationsIncident ClassificationDowntimeOperational Resilience

Organizations spend a median of $24.5 million annually on AI tools that prevent and respond to downtime.

AIIncident ResponseIT SpendingDowntime

Only 38% of technology executives consistently identify the root cause of a downtime incident.

Root Cause AnalysisIncident ResponseDowntimeOperational Resilience