(Stephen Pritchard, ITPro) Companies are becoming more aware of the direct financial costs of computer downtime, according to a survey of IT managers. One in five businesses lose £10,000 an hour through systems downtime.

Almost one in four companies have suffered an outage that lasted more than one business day, even though IT failures are meant to be covered by their business continuity plans. “The fact that people are willing to state that it costs of £10,000 an hour, or even £1m per business day, means that businesses appear to be taking it seriously.” said Andrew Barnes from Neverfail.

Greater awareness of the costs to the business of failure does not appear to translate into more resilient systems. The survey found that the number of businesses affected by outages remains stubbornly high. A full 92.8% of companies said they had experienced a failure. Businesses are becoming more aware of the costs of downtime, because in a tough trading climate, retaining customers, and maintaining revenues, has become a higher priority.