Survey: 88% of Execs Expect an Incident as Large as the July Global IT Outage Within the Next Year

By Debbie O'Brien, Chief Communications Officer and Vice President of Global Social Impact at PagerDuty

In today's digitally-connected world, IT outages can be inconvenient at best and extremely challenging at worst. Whether it's tomorrow or one year from now, IT outages are no longer a matter of "if" but "when."

Technology infrastructure continues to grow increasingly complex as new applications and services are built on top of old ones, resulting in numerous interdependencies across the stack that make service outages inevitable.

A recent PagerDuty survey conducted by Wakefield Research reveals startling insights into how survey respondents - 1,000 IT and business executives who were director level and above, from the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Japan - perceive and prepare for major service disruptions. The findings underscore the critical need for businesses to prioritize resilience and incident management in an increasingly complex technological landscape.

The Inevitability of Outages

Perhaps the most striking revelation from the survey is that 88% of executives believe another major incident - comparable to the July global IT outage - will occur within the next 12 months. This sentiment is consistent across key markets, with a strong majority in the U.K. (91%), U.S. (89%), Australia (88%), and Japan (78%) viewing service disruptions as inevitable.

Not Enough Focus on Resilience

The survey highlights a significant shift in executive mindset.

A whopping 86% of leaders now recognize that they've been prioritizing security at the expense of readiness for service disruptions. This realization is prompting a change in approach, with 55% of executives observing a shift towards continually evaluating and improving preparedness, rather than relying on one-time investments in new systems or protocols which are now complete. The reality is that focusing on preventing service and security distributions is imperative for organizations today. Preparedness in terms of people, process and culture is key to ensuring disruptions are minimized to limit revenue and reputational harm.

The Impact of Outages Throughout the Organization

The July global IT outage served as a wake-up call, exposing the wide-ranging consequences of such incidents:

• 37% of companies experienced lost revenue or an inability to process sales transactions
• 39% faced delayed response times to customer or internal requests
• 44% saw increased reliance on manual processes or workarounds

Moreover, nearly all executives surveyed (Japanese 96%, U.K. 95%, U.S. 93%, and Australian 88%) believe such incidents are disruptive to their teams, with 9% describing them as severely disruptive.

Preparedness Gaps Exposed

The July global IT outage caught more than 80% of business and IT executives off guard, revealing significant gaps in preparedness. This surprise was particularly pronounced in the U.K. (89%) and U.S. (84%).

The survey also identified several factors that could exacerbate the impact of future outages, including:

• Limited access to real-time data and monitoring tools will hinder their organizations during an outage, if approaches to service disruption are not prioritized (Japan 53%, U.S. 48%, Australia 48%, and U.K. 47%)
• Outdated technology or software (Australia 50%, U.S. 44%, Japan 42%, and U.K. 38%)
• Insufficient incident management planning, if approaches to service disruption are not prioritized (47% of IT executives, 41% of business executives)

Conclusion: A Call to Action

The survey results serve as a clear call to action for businesses worldwide. 100% of survey respondents reported a heightened focus on preparing for future service disruptions. It's evident that the time to act is now with companies increasing budgets for technology solutions (Japan 49%, Australia 40%, U.K. 38%, and U.S. 37%) and improving communication about preparedness protocols (Australia 41%, U.S. 37%, U.K. 37%, and Japan 28%) .

As we navigate an increasingly complex digital landscape, the message is clear: preparation is key. By investing in resilience and fostering a culture of continuous improvement, businesses can better position themselves to weather the inevitable storms of IT outages and emerge stronger on the other side.

For access to the full report, please visit: https://www.pagerduty.com/resources/learn/execs-expecting-it-outages-2025/

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