Uptime Annual Outage Analysis 2025 (7th annual) - press release

Overview

This document is the press release for the seventh annual outage analysis report that Uptime Institute announced in May 2025. It summarises the main results of the yearly review of data center and IT outage frequency, severity and causes. It does not replace the full report; it is an entry point for anyone who wants a quick view of the industry's reliability trend. The first finding is positive: outage frequency and reported severity declined for the fourth consecutive year.

Even so, power remains the leading cause of impactful outages, and IT and networking issues totalled 23% in 2024. That distribution suggests that investment in electrical infrastructure is still where reliability effort matters most. On the human side, outages caused by failure to follow procedures rose by ten percentage points compared with 2024. The release also states that third-party IT and data center providers account for about two thirds of publicly reported outages over nine years.

For organisations that outsource, this means supplier risk deserves serious attention. The limits should be understood. This is a press release that points to a 9-page executive summary excerpt of a 26-page report; the detailed data, full breakdown of causes and methodology sit in the full report. Publicly reported outages represent only those that reached the public, not all outages.

Key points

1. Outage frequency and reported severity declined for the fourth consecutive year.
2. Power remains the leading cause of impactful outages.
3. IT and networking issues totalled 23% in 2024.
4. Human-error outages from failure to follow procedures rose by ten percentage points versus 2024.
5. Third-party IT and data center providers account for about two thirds of publicly reported outages over nine years.
6. The release points to a 9-page executive summary excerpt of a 26-page report.

Using it in design

• When presenting availability improvements, emphasise procedure adherence and training alongside topology.
• In the operations module, treat human-error risk as a separate line item.
• In power infrastructure decisions, cite power as still the dominant outage cause as justification.
• In outsourcing scenarios, include third-party provider risk in the assessment.

Who should read it

Engineers, facility managers and investment decision makers setting reliability and operations strategy.

Publication details

Authors

Uptime Institute

Publisher

Uptime Institute

Year

2025

Document language

English

Source type

Industry body

Access

Free to read

Licence

Copyright retained; citation only — the publisher’s terms apply to the original document

Citation