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Q & A Security · September 3, 2026

How does Gartner's $5,600/minute figure compare to ITIC's data?

Gartner published the $5,600/minute figure (~$336K/hour) in 2014, and it remains one of the most-cited baselines in the industry despite being over a decade old. ITIC’s 2024 median of $300K+/hour brackets the Gartner number closely — meaning the Gartner figure is still directionally correct but sits at the low end of today’s distribution. For any organisation above the small-business band, the ITIC 2024 data is the better reference.

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Enterprise Downtime Costs $300K/hr — And Why That's a Floor
Cost of downtime is the single most-abused number in security-budget requests. It's also one of the most rigorously measured. ITIC's 2024 survey pins the median mid/large enterprise at over $300K/hour; the top of the industry table clears $5M/hour. Here's how the number is built, why Gartner's $5,600/min baseline still holds up, and how to calculate your own.
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How do I calculate my own hourly downtime cost? What are the main causes of unplanned enterprise downtime? What counts as downtime cost in these reports? What is the current benchmark cost of one hour of downtime? Why is the $300K/hour figure called a floor and not a ceiling?