Downtime and recovery impact calculator

What could recovery delay cost your business?

Estimate how recovery time could affect productivity and operations, compare the result with your RTO and RPO targets, and see which recovery path is worth reviewing.

Model business impact

Estimate productivity, operating, and response impact using your own inputs.

Compare recovery targets

See the recovery-time gap and potential data-exposure gap separately.

Find the right next step

Review backup, DRaaS, availability, or Microsoft 365 recovery based on the scenario.

A backup result is only useful when the recovery plan meets the business need

Downtime impact depends on more than the size of a backup. Detection, decision-making, recovery preparation, restore or failover, validation, and business resumption all affect the result. This calculator keeps those stages visible and compares the modeled delay with the targets your business or client expects.

Use the result as a planning conversation, then validate assumptions through a documented recovery test.

Estimate your recovery impact

Enter the business impact, recovery timeline, and recovery targets for one meaningful scenario. You can model your own organization or a client environment.

Business impact

Recovery scenario

See your result

Recovery impact calculator

Estimate your recovery impact

Enter the business impact, recovery timeline, and recovery targets for one meaningful scenario. You can model your own organization or a client environment.

Before you start

${ICON_CHECK} Persistent field labels and inline help throughout — nothing hidden behind icons alone.
${ICON_CHECK} Every input stays editable and visible before your result is calculated — no hidden defaults.
${ICON_CHECK} Takes about 3 minutes across 3 short steps.

Step 1 of 3: Business impact33%

1. Business impact

2. Recovery scenario

3. Your result

We could not calculate a result from these inputs. Review the highlighted fields.

Who is this for?

I am estimating impact for

Currency

Workload

Productivity impact

Enter at least one affected employee, or a revenue/operating impact below.

Employees affected — number of people unable to work normally optional

Loaded employee cost — per affected employee, per hour optional

Use salary plus employer costs. If you don't know it, enter a reasonable planning estimate.

Productivity loss

Avoids assuming every affected employee is completely idle. Editable before you calculate.

Revenue or operating impact optional

Use either quick or advanced mode, never both.

Estimated revenue or operating impact per hour optional

Enter only the portion likely to be affected. Leave it blank if productivity impact is the more reliable measure.

Annual revenue

Operating schedule

${ICON_INFO} Check the operating-hours assumption before using annual revenue — it changes the hourly figure directly.

Percentage of revenue affected

Other costs optional

Other hourly impact — contractual penalties, external services, overtime optional

Adds your own hourly impact without assuming a universal industry multiplier.

One-time response cost — incident response, emergency labor, communications optional

Recovery delay

Enter each stage in hours (decimals allowed, e.g. 0.5 for 30 minutes). Include time to detect, start recovery, restore or fail over, validate, and return the business process to normal.

This is a scenario estimate, not a product performance promise.

Detect & decide (hrs)

Recovery start (hrs)

Restore / failover (hrs)

Validation & resumption (hrs)

Recovery time must be greater than zero.

Recovery point interval

How old could the newest recoverable copy or recovery point be? Shown separately — never added to downtime.

Current recovery-point interval (hrs)

Recovery targets

Target RTO (hrs)

Target RPO (hrs)

Target RTO and target RPO cannot be negative.

Recovery proof

Last successful recovery test that restored the representative workload and met the business requirement.

Annual frequency optional

Expected material incidents per year optional

Creates an annualized scenario estimate only when you supply a value — no industry default is inserted.

Your modeled recovery impact

Based on the assumptions entered, one recovery event could create approximately this much modeled business impact.

Recovery-time gap

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Data-exposure gap

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This is a scenario estimate based on the assumptions you entered, not a guaranteed financial outcome.

Get the detailed breakdown, recovery-path recommendation, and a copy of your result

See the business-impact breakdown, target gaps, recovery-confidence flag, and the OpenText recovery path that best matches your scenario.

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Modeled impact of one recovery event

This is a scenario estimate, not actual financial loss.

Productivity impact / hr

Revenue / operating exposure / hr

Other hourly impact

Estimated business impact / hr

One-time response cost

Estimated recovery delay

Detect & decide

0 hrs

Recovery start

0 hrs

Restore / failover

0 hrs

Validation & resumption

0 hrs

Total estimated recovery delay

0 hrs

Recovery-time gap

Vs. target RTO

0 hrs

Data-exposure gap

Vs. target RPO

0 hrs

Modeled impact reduction if target RTO is met

Not labeled as ROI, savings, or guaranteed avoided loss — it's the modeled effect of closing the recovery-time gap alone. Excludes one-time costs.

Recommended route

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For your role

Turn technical recovery time into a business decision

Use a clear estimate to compare the cost of delay with the investment and operating change required to improve recovery.

Make RTO and RPO assumptions visible

Break recovery into the stages your team controls, identify the target gap, and use a documented test to replace assumptions with evidence.

Bring a recovery business case into the client conversation

Model one client scenario with agreed inputs, show the recovery-time and recovery-point gaps separately, and use the result to scope the right service discussion.

Turn the estimate into a recovery plan

Review the workloads in scope, the assumptions behind the estimate, your RTO and RPO targets, and how recovery is currently tested. A specialist can help identify the backup, disaster recovery, or availability path to evaluate.

FAQs

Is this a financial-loss forecast?

No. It is a planning estimate based on the assumptions entered. Actual losses vary and some cost categories may overlap.

What is the difference between RTO and RPO?

RTO is the time the business can tolerate before operations resume. RPO is the maximum acceptable age of the recovery point and indicates potential data exposure.

Why is backup frequency not added to downtime?

Backup frequency affects the recovery point, not the time required to restore service. Adding it to downtime would combine two different recovery objectives.

Can bandwidth calculate my recovery time?

Bandwidth can help estimate transfer time, but full recovery also includes detection, recovery start, orchestration, boot, validation, and business resumption.

Can an MSP use the result with a client?

Yes. Use client-approved inputs, keep the estimate disclaimer visible, and validate the technical assumptions before using the result in a proposal.

Does Microsoft 365 Backup prevent a Microsoft service outage?

No. Microsoft 365 Backup helps recover supported data after deletion, malicious change, and other data-loss events. It does not restore the Microsoft service during a platform outage.

Is the recommended product a final architecture decision?

No. The route is a starting point based on the scenario entered. Workload support, deployment, recovery targets, and commercial fit still need validation.

What should I do after the estimate?

Review the largest recovery gap, confirm the assumptions, and run or schedule a representative recovery test.

Ready when you are

Know the impact. Validate the recovery plan.

Use your estimate to focus the next conversation on the workload, recovery target, and test evidence that matter most.

Downtime and recovery impact calculator

What could recovery delay cost your business?

Model business impact

Compare recovery targets

Find the right next step

A backup result is only useful when the recovery plan meets the business need

Estimate your recovery impact

Business impact

Recovery scenario

See your result

Estimate your recovery impact

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Turn technical recovery time into a business decision

Make RTO and RPO assumptions visible

Bring a recovery business case into the client conversation

Turn the estimate into a recovery plan

Request received

FAQs

Ready when you are

Know the impact. Validate the recovery plan.