Overview#
Ensuring systems and data remain accessible and reliable when needed. Includes redundancy, capacity planning, DDoS protection, and tested recovery procedures.
Core objectives#
- Establish shared definitions of Availability for security, engineering, and leadership teams.
- Connect Availability activities to measurable risk reduction and resilience goals.
- Provide onboarding notes so new team members can quickly understand how Availability works here.
Implementation notes#
- Identify the primary owner for Availability, the data sources involved, and the systems affected.
- Document the minimum viable process, tooling, and runbooks that keep Availability healthy.
- Map Availability practices to standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, or CIS Controls.
Operational signals#
- Leading indicators: early warnings that Availability might degrade (e.g., backlog growth, noisy alerts, or missed SLAs).
- Lagging indicators: realized impact that shows Availability failed or needs investment (e.g., incidents, audit findings).
- Feedback loops: retrospectives and metrics reviews that tune Availability continuously.
Related practices#
- Align Availability with defense-in-depth planning, threat modeling, and disaster recovery tests.
- Communicate updates to stakeholders through concise briefs, dashboards, and internal FAQs.
- Pair Availability improvements with tabletop exercises to validate expectations.