The term downtime is used to refer to periods when a system is unavailable.
Downtime refers to a period of time that a system fails to provide or perform its primary function.
Reliability, availability, recovery and unavailability are related concepts. The unavailability is the proportion of a time-span that a system is unavailable or offline. This is usually a result of the system failing to function because of an unplanned event, or because of routine maintenance (a planned event).
The term is commonly applied to networks and servers. The term is also commonly applied in industrial environments in relation to failures in industrial production equipment.
Some facilities measure the downtime incurred during a work shift, or during a 12 or 24-hour period. Another common practice is to identify each downtime event as having an operational, electrical or mechanical origin.
The opposite of downtime is uptime.
