# Defining Uptime: Data Center Insights

Source: https://expedient.com/knowledgebase/blog/2014-05-02-defining-uptime-data-center-insights/

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# Defining Uptime: Data Center Insights

May 02, 2014 1 min Read

## The Importance of Defining Uptime

Every industry has its own shorthand and IT is no different. When looking for web hosting and [data center services](https://www.expedient.com/the-data-centers/ "Data Centers"), uptime is one of the terms thrown about. Uptime is, at its most basic, the amount of time that a server stays up and running. Uptime is usually measured as a percentage of time. So, if a company advertises that they have 99% uptime, this means that 1% of the time they are down. Sounds great, right?

#### 99% Uptime vs. 99.99 Percent Uptime

On the surface, the difference between 99% and 99.9% might not sound like much, but 99.9% uptime means being down only 8.8 hours a year. Consider the difference in lost revenue between three days down and eight hours down.

Uptime is the amount of time that you are up and running, but when making a decision regarding uptime, make sure you understand the downtime consequences.

Need more information about uptime? Expedient is here to help. [Contact us](https://www.expedient.com/support/ "Support") to learn more about our data center services.

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[ 
 ![Ed Dzurko](https://res.cloudinary.com/dvlpy3tua/image/upload/fl_sanitize/uploads/EdDzurko.jpg)
Ed DzurkoDirector, Facility Engineering

 ](/knowledgebase/blog/authors/ed-dzurko)
[Data Centers](/knowledgebase/blog/tag/data%20centers)

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