Data center outages are becoming less frequent and less severe relative to the rapid growth of digital infrastructure, according to new reports from Uptime Institute. However, enterprise data center operations still face a range of challenges, making colocation an attractive alternative and complement to on-premises IT infrastructure.
The number of significant data center outages is declining, according to Uptime Institute's Global Data Center Survey 2025. “Uptime survey results consistently show that impactful data center outages (those significant enough to record, even if the resulting costs were negligible) are becoming less frequent relative to the overall growth in IT,” the report states. For example, 50% of data centers experienced at least one impactful outage over the past three years, down from 53% in 2024.1
Similarly, Uptime's Annual Outage Analysis 2025 shows that overall outage frequency and severity continue to decline.2 Uptime’s annual outage analysis draws on multiple surveys, information supplied by Uptime Institute members and partners, and its database of publicly reported outages.
Despite this good news, however, the risk is still considerable. The outage analysis report found that one in ten outages cause serious or severe disruption.2
“Data center operators are facing a growing number of external risks beyond their control, including power grid constraints, extreme weather, network provider failures and third-party software issues,” warns Andy Lawrence, founding member and executive director, Uptime Intelligence.3
The data center report also observes that rapidly increasing workload demands from emerging technologies, such as AI, put additional stress on data centers and the power systems that support them.1
Both Uptime reports find that power remains the leading cause of impactful outages, accounting for 45% of incidents in 2025, most often from UPS issues.1
The report adds that the share of outages caused by power issues in 2025 has declined from the previous year, however rising demand for AI is straining power and cooling, and growing power stability challenges – such as aging grid infrastructure and intermittent renewable energy – mean this downward trend may not last long.
Uptime also highlights a rising concern about data center capacity. “The share of operators whose management is 'very concerned' about forecasting future data center capacity requirements increased by a significant nine percentage points since 2023,” the data center report states.1 These concerns seem to stem from the challenge of balancing increasing demand for capacity with cost.
Although the number of outages is decreasing, the outage analysis report finds that the proportion of human error-related outages is rising – a 10% increase in just the last year.2
“The overwhelming majority of human error-related outages involve ignored or inadequate procedures,” according to Uptime. “Nearly 40% of organizations have suffered a major outage caused by human error over the past three years. Of these incidents, 85% stem from staff failing to follow procedures or from flaws in the processes and procedures.”3
In addition, outages from IT and networking issues increased in 2024, likely caused by change management issues and misconfigurations resulting from increased IT and network complexity – which again points back to human error.
The outage analysis report also offers a revealing statistic: 80% of data center operators believe better management and processes would have prevented their most recent downtime incident.2
Nearly two-thirds of operators report difficulty retaining staff, finding qualified candidates, or both, according to the data center report.
“The data center industry has faced shortages of staff and skills for more than a decade,” the report explains. “Nearly half (46%) of operators report difficulties finding qualified candidates for vacant roles, and more than one in three (37%) struggle to retain their staff.”1
“Our data shows operators are tasked with managing a lot of big strategic challenges at the same time. These include anticipating multiple technological changes, planning for expansion in spite of major constraints on power availability, and preparing for and supporting unpredictable AI workload demand,” Lawrence from Uptime Institute adds. “This is a time where senior level experience is critical.”4
By outsourcing data center infrastructure and operations to a CoreSite colocation facility, you can address data center challenges cited in the new Uptime reports.
CoreSite advantages include:
High Availability: CoreSite maintains a long-standing record of delivering operational excellence and consistently exceeding the industry standard of 99.999% uptime. Backed by a 100% uptime SLA, CoreSite data centers ensure IT availability and business continuity.
Reliable Power: CoreSite data centers are designed for reliability, featuring N+1 and 2N power redundancy. In addition, CoreSite is taking power grid capacity issues head-on, and future-proofing its colocation data centers by deploying on-site power leveraging the latest technology, such as high-reliability gas-powered fuel cells.
Scalable Capacity: CoreSite colocation offers easy on-demand scalability, on a level that is simply not possible with on-premises data centers that must keep up with continually increasing space, performance, power and cooling demands.
World-Class Expertise: CoreSite is a world leader in data center operations, maintaining a dedicated team of experts. You can mitigate your operational challenges – such as inadequate training, human-error, and staffing shortages – by outsourcing your data center operations to CoreSite.
Know More
Ready to make the move to colocation? Contact us! We welcome the opportunity to learn about your specific business objectives and technical challenges, and exchange thoughts on how we can help you become a future-ready enterprise.
Interested in a career offering professional growth? Go to the CoreSite Careers section of our website to learn more about the many opportunities offered in data center operations as well as other areas of the company, our core values, benefits packages and commitment to operational excellence.
And, check out the CoreSite YouTube channel to meet some of our data center operations team and get a look inside a data center!
References
1. Global Data Center Survey 2025, Uptime Institute, 2025 (source)
2. Annual Outage Analysis 2025, Uptime Institute, 2025 (source)
3. Uptime Announces Annual Outage Analysis Report 2025, Uptime Institute, May 6, 2025 (source)
4. Uptime’s 15th Annual Global Data Center Survey Results Shows Both Commitment and Hesitancy as Industry Plans for Wider AI Usage, Climate
5. Change Reporting, and the NVIDIA Revolution to Come, Uptime Institute, July 30, 2025 (source)