Downtime, which refers to periods when all or part of a system is unavailable, can impose significant financial and reputational costs on businesses. The Ponemon Institute estimates that partial outages can cost an average of $5,600 per minute, with costs exceeding $1 million for single incidents in certain industries. Measurable costs include lost productivity, recovery expenses, and potential penalties from Service-Level Agreements (SLAs). Beyond these, downtime can also lead to unquantifiable costs such as damaged employee morale, disrupted projects, and a tarnished reputation. As technology systems grow more complex, downtime becomes virtually unavoidable, but organizations can mitigate its impact by implementing incident response plans, prioritizing essential services, and conducting regular testing. By doing so, businesses can significantly reduce downtime costs and protect crucial qualitative factors like employee morale, brand reputation, and customer loyalty.