30 ITSM Statistics That Show The Cost of Outdated Infrastructure

IT failures don’t announce themselves with one catastrophic event. They are an accumulation of unsolved or queued tickets, data breaches, ungoverned AI tools, and security gaps that go unaddressed for a long period. ITSM is the operational backbone through which enterprises can detect failures and catch vulnerabilities before they arise. But when the backbone is built from manual processes and fragmented tools, every incident costs more and takes longer to resolve.   

A study highlights that on average, one hour of unplanned downtime costs $300,000+ for the majority of enterprises. Without hard numbers, most organizations don’t recognize the need to update their infrastructure. Hence, by focusing on the five key areas, including financial cost of downtime, security failures, productivity loss, AI readiness, and incident detection, this blog provides 30 ITSM statistics, highlighting what outdated infrastructure costs organizations. 

So, let’s get started!

Stats highlighting the financial cost of downtime and slow resolution

1. As per the ITIC 2024 Hourly Cost of Downtime Survey, for over 90% of mid-size and large enterprises, the average cost of a single hour of downtime is more than $300,000. (Source)

2. The average cost of IT downtime has increased by 9% in just two years. The BigPanda IT Outages 2024 report highlights that the average cost of unplanned IT downtime is $14,056 per minute, up from $12,900 in 2022. (Source)

3. A single significant outage costs an average of $3.2 million to organizations with 10,000+ employees, as per the same BigPanda IT Outages 2024 report. For organizations with 1,000-2,500 employees, the cost of a significant outage is $963,660, close to $1 million. 

4. The EMA research shows that companies with 1,000–5,000 employees saw outage costs double since 2022, while organizations with 5,000+ employees saw a 17% increase. (Source)

5. Organizations take an average of 35.73 hours to resolve tickets without a priority matrix as per the Freshservice ITSM Benchmark Report 2024. (Source) 

6. According to the same ITSM report, enterprises operating without workflow automation take an average of 32.42 hours to resolve tickets, which is 26.63% longer than organizations that automate. 

7. UK data from the UK Government Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024 suggests that around 50% of businesses experienced a cybersecurity breach in the last 12 months. The average total cost of the single most disruptive breach for medium and large businesses was £10,830. (Source)

What does it mean for businesses?

These figures suggest that enterprises must consider infrastructure modernization as a necessity rather than an option. Organizations need workflow automation, priority frameworks, and a modern incident response infrastructure to reduce the overall financial cost of downtime.  

Stats highlighting the security failures from outdated infrastructure

8. In 2025, the global average cost of a data breach reached $4.44 million, which could have been much lower if the US alone hadn’t recorded an average of $10.22 million as per IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025. (Source)  

9. The IBM report also highlights that over 97% of the data breaches that occurred in AI systems had no governance in place. Without proper compliance and access controls, systems are exposed to vulnerabilities and prone to unauthorized access. (Source) 

10. Organizations using unsanctioned and ungoverned AI tools faced an additional average cost of $670,000 in data breaches, according to IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025. 

11. According to an IBM and Forrester Consulting study, over 70% of responding organizations have delayed updating their infrastructure, which led to increased security issues and vulnerabilities. (Source)

12. The recent IBM Data Breach Report highlights that organizations experiencing a high security skills shortage have to incur an average breach cost of $5.22 million, which is $1.57 million higher in comparison with organizations facing a low skills shortage. (Source) 

What does it mean for businesses?

These security failures highlight that the outcomes of a weak infrastructure are measurable. When organizations delay updating their infrastructure, it creates ungoverned gaps in the systems. The breach itself does not create the vulnerability. Security failures happen because of ungoverned gaps like unpatched systems, missing access controls, and the deployment of AI tools without oversight. 

Stats highlighting the productivity gap from manual IT operations

13. The 2025 Freshservice Benchmark report reveals a 76.6% decrease in resolution time and a 41.1% increase in the first response time for tickets that were resolved using Freddy AI Copilot compared to those solved manually. (Source)

14. The same report highlights that the Freddy AI agent saved a cumulative 431,270 hours across Freshservice customers in one year. Without AI automation, this would take the equivalent of 49 years of manual agent work.

15. As per the Freshservice Benchmark 2024 report, enterprises using Gen AI assistance tools see a 34.58% faster ticket resolution. This is due to the dropped average resolution time from 21.49 hours to 14.06 hours. (Source)

16. Rezolve, via ServiceNow Help Desk Statistics, highlights that manual IT environments handle 60% more ticket volume than necessary. (Source)

17. Atera, via ServiceNow Help Desk Statistics, indicates that adopting AI reduces IT help desk response times from an industry standard of 7+ hours to 3 seconds. (Source)

18. ServiceNow Help Desk Statistics also reveal that enterprises using automation respond to customer issues 37% faster than those relying solely on manual methods. (Source)

19. A Forrester study commissioned by IBM highlights that current infrastructure limitations block critical recovery goals. 46% expect faster data recovery, and 41% expect faster service restoration, but their current systems don’t allow it. (Source)

What does it mean for businesses?

Manual IT operations slow teams down. These ITSM statistics highlight what infrastructure modernization costs at an operational level. The numbers strongly indicate that the modern or AI-assisted infrastructure is helping enterprises reduce resolution times, ticket volume, and response delays. 

Stats highlighting the AI readiness gap

20. The study by Gartner 2025 indicates that only 28% of AI use cases in infrastructure and operations fully succeed and meet ROI expectations, while 20% fail. (Source)

21. The same Gartner survey highlights that 57% of I&O leaders reported at least one AI project failure. They expected AI to immediately automate complex tasks without the infrastructure readiness to support it.

22. Freshservice ITSM Benchmark Report 2025 highlights that AI ROI compounds when infrastructure supports it. The fact is supported by Freddy AI Copilot outcomes, which delivered a 76.6% drop in average resolution time in 2025, more than double the 34.58% improvement recorded in 2024. (Source) 

23. In the Gartner study, 38% of I&O leaders cite that persistent skills gap, poor data quality, and limited data availability are a direct cause of AI failure in enterprises. (Source)

What does it mean for businesses?

The increased rate of AI project failures is the result of outdated infrastructure used by enterprises. If enterprises are looking to expand their AI initiatives, they should prioritize resolving poor data quality issues, skills shortages, and infrastructure unreadiness.   

Stats highlighting poor visibility and slow incident detection

24. The IBM study highlights that organizations using AI and automation extensively to identify a data breach are 153 days, as opposed to 212 days for organizations not using AI tools. (Source)

25. According to the same IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025, 43% of organizations plan to invest in threat detection and response technologies, and 37% in data security and protection tools following a breach. 

26. The IBM report suggests that companies can save up to an average of $1.9 million by containing data breaches using AI-driven tools and systems. 

27. The 2024 IT outages, costs, and containment report by BigPanda shows that 27% of the enterprises that are in early AIOps maturity stages cannot detect incidents before they escalate into full outages. (Source)

28. Gartner Critical Capabilities Report for AI Applications in IT Service Management says that by 2027, 50% of AI projects for IT service desks will be abandoned due to unforeseen risks, costs, or an inability to achieve projected ROI. (Source)

29. IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025 shows that 86% of organizations that suffered a data breach experienced business-wide operational disruption. (Source)   

30. The top causes of unplanned downtime, according to 84% of ITIC survey respondents, include security attacks, like ransomware, phishing, and targeted hacks. Only 1 in 5 organizations has proper measures to assess the hourly cost of system downtime, which accounts for only 22% of organizations. (Source) 

What does it mean for businesses?

Collectively, the stats highlight that enterprises that cannot measure downtime cost cannot prevent it. The data consistently shows that incident detection speed and infrastructure maturity are directly correlated. Hence, enterprises need modern detection and monitoring infrastructure that gives them the visibility to resolve issues before they escalate. 

Bottom line

These 30 ITSM statistics make it clear that the gap between modern and outdated infrastructure is measurable, and it is widening every year. Now, the next step for you is to determine where your organization sits within these numbers.  

If you are evaluating where your ITSM infrastructure stands today, Cyntexa’s team of ServiceNow and Salesforce specialists will help you assess ITSM maturity, data readiness, and maximize the ROI of your ITSM investments. We will help you build a data foundation that actually works with AI and automation. 

Reach out to our team now!

AUTHOR

Vishwajeet Srivastava

Salesforce Data Cloud, AI Products, ServiceNow, Product Engineering

Co-founder and CTO at Cyntexa also known as “VJ”. With 10+ years of experience and 22+ Salesforce certifications, he’s a seasoned expert in Salesforce Data Cloud & AI Products, Product Engineering, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, ServiceNow, and Managed Services. Known for blending strategic thinking with hands-on expertise, VJ is passionate about building scalable solutions that drive innovation, operational efficiency, and enterprise-wide transformation.