Formula
System Uptime = [(Total Time – Downtime) ÷ Total Time] × 100
Calculation Example
If a system runs for 30 days with 2 hours of downtime, Uptime = [(30 × 24 – 2) ÷ (30 × 24)] × 100 = 99.72%
Data Source
IT Monitoring Tools, Network Logs, Incident Reports
Tracking Frequency
Hourly, Daily, Monthly
Optimal Value
Higher is better; 99.9%+ is standard for most services.
Minimum Acceptable Value
A low uptime percentage can lead to lost productivity and revenue.
Benchmark
Industry benchmarks: SaaS ~99.9%, Cloud Services ~99.99%, Telecom ~99.999%
Recommended Chart Type
Line chart (to track uptime trends), Bar chart (to compare data centers)
How It Appears in Reports
Displayed in IT reports to assess system reliability.
Why Is This KPI Important?
Indicates system stability and availability for end users.
Typical Problems and Limitations
May not reflect partial outages affecting performance.
Actions for Poor Results
Implement redundancy, improve maintenance schedules, use automated failover solutions.
Related KPIs
Server Response Time, Cost of Downtime, Bug Fix Time
Real-Life Examples
A cloud provider improved uptime from 99.5% to 99.98% by implementing automatic failover.
Most Common Mistakes
Focusing on uptime without improving performance and response time.
