‘Skipping a beat on resilience investment isn’t an option any more’ as IT outage costs soar

IT disruption is costing UK businesses a fortune, with nearly two-thirds losing more than £225,000 ($300,000) per hour.

The figure for the UK and Ireland is about 65% - slightly below the 68% reported globally, but still representing a critical financial risk; and one that executives are taking seriously.

According to PagerDuty's State of AI-First Operations report, top leaders are nearly unanimous (95%) that faster incident recovery and fewer major incidents create competitive advantage.

Notably, 53% identify brand and reputational damage as the biggest impact from major incidents, closely tracking the 52% reported globally.

Nearly half (48%) cite lost productivity as the next major impact when systems go down. Globally, organizations also report recovery and remediation costs (50%) and developer burnout (42%) as significant consequences of IT disruption.

“The extent of financial damage from IT disruption is a stark reminder that skipping a beat on resilience investment isn’t an option any more," said Eric Johnson, CIO at PagerDuty.

"There’s certainly a sliding scale in resourcing, based on what is feasible for any given business, but turning off the taps can spell disaster. About 65% of UK and Ireland companies face losses of £225,000 or more per hour during major incidents."

Enterprises are bolstering resilience

PagerDuty noted that 68% of respondents in the UK and Ireland have made efforts to increase operational resilience over the past year, close to the 71% global rate.

However, it's the UK and Ireland that have the widest investment gap globally: organizations here whose company revenue has increased in the past year are more likely to increase operational resilience budgets than those reporting flat or declining revenue.

This exceeds the 20-point global average by more than 50%.

“UK and Ireland organizations are making strong strides on operational resilience, but beneath that momentum lies a growing divide," said Johnson.

"When revenue is healthy, UKI leaders are injecting that cash back into IT departments. But those with flat revenue trends are choosing the opposite, creating a 31-point investment gap that is the widest we see globally."

AI brings potential and new risks

With enterprises across the UK and Ireland focusing heavily on AI investment, many are optimistic about the technology’s potential. Nearly half (41%) believe that AI-assisted operations automation could cut service disruptions by at least 20%.

This is at least in part due to faith in human oversight, with 59% having a three-year goal of maintaining an even mix of AI agents and human workers to reduce service disruptions and increase operational resilience, much the same as the 62% global rate.

"A blend of human workers and AI agents can help alleviate pressure on strapped teams, and balanced approaches here can surface issues and accelerate analysis effectively, all while preserving the judgment, context, and accountability," said Johnson.

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