My small operation has been much more stable since moving away from traditional pools. Previous downtime was only due to DDoS, pool upgrade, or pool failure. Since I've been able to "be the pool operator" I've been running non-stop, zero downtime. I expect that to continue.
I plan on implementing a second P2Pool server on a back up computer and using the appropriate switches to default to that server in case the first server would crash.
Sheesh, another fantastic reason to use P2Pool, it's as reliable as you are.
Barring total black out or interruption from my ISP (both of which I plan to address in the future), I don't foresee my downtime being significant from now on.
Well, my rigs automatically reboot if a GPU locks. Therefore it can run unattended. However, that doesn't mean that my OCs are stable.