Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve arrived at the A in our CIA acronym. As a review, C=Confidentiality and I=Integrity. Can you guess what the A might mean? Here’s a hint: Remember the last time you went to the ATM with your hot date and you had no money? What was that embarrassing message that the machine seemed all to quick to tell you in front of your now very cool date? No funds _______. If you said “available”, you’re the genius that you think you are (okay, maybe dateless, but take the compliment anyway).
For computer systems, the availability of information is paramount. When information isn’t available productivity can be affected, possibly costing the company money and more then a few angry customers. Therefore, information must be reliable and accessible in a timely fashion so that tasks and responsibilities won’t be impeded.
Let’s say, in our date scenario above, you decide to call the bank to find out what’s going on with your account. The teller would like to help you, but she can’t access the database for one reason or another. In this example, not only does the bank have an embarrassed customer, but now a mad one too.
Unfortunately, most of us have experienced a time when we needed information and it wasn’t available. That’s why it’s critical that mechanisms (which we’ll discuss later) are put in place to ensure the availability of resources to maintain productivity and to keep those customers happy.
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