Declining Outage Frequency but Rising Costs
Uptime Institute has released its 8th Annual Outage Analysis Report, examining the causes, frequency, and consequences of IT and data centre outages in 2026.
According to the report, outage frequency per site has declined for the fifth consecutive year, though the rate of improvement has slowed. It highlights that around 10% of recent outages had serious or severe impacts.
External infrastructure failures have become more prominent in publicly reported outages, with issues related to fibre and connectivity increasingly leading to extended disruptions.
Andy Lawrence, Executive Director of Uptime Intelligence, stated, “Outages overall have slowed down, and overall, digital infrastructure is remarkably resilient. But further resiliency gains are becoming harder to achieve.”
Key Findings from the Report
The report notes a rise in outage costs, with 57% of respondents stating their last major outage cost more than AUD 150,000. One in five reported costs exceeding AUD 1.5 million.
Power issues remain the leading cause of impactful outages, with failures involving UPS systems, transfer switches, and generators. However, grid constraints and high-density workloads are creating new pressure points.
Operators are investing in automation and control systems to manage complexity, but this also introduces new risks. Human error remains a significant cause of outages, often due to inconsistent procedures.
Third-party IT and data centre service providers have accounted for about two-thirds of reported outages over nine years. This reflects an industry shift that may require contractual and financial adaptations.
The 2026 Annual Outage Analysis webinar will be held on May 13th, with further insights available in a downloadable executive summary and full report for Uptime Network members.
Outages linked to fibre and connectivity issues are on the rise and more likely to result in extended disruptions, according to the report. These trends suggest a growing reliance on external digital infrastructure.
Uptime Institute’s analysis is based on data from various sources, including public reports and surveys such as the Annual Uptime Institute Global Data Centre Survey.
The report highlights that digital infrastructure is becoming more distributed, with outages originating outside the data center, including those tied to network connectivity and external cloud services.
