business-critical software
noun
Software an organisation depends on for essential operations, so an outage can have significant consequences.
The scheduling application is business-critical software: without it, drivers do not know which routes to take.
Whether software is business-critical depends on the organisation using it. An inventory application may be indispensable to a distribution centre, while another organisation could manage without a similar system for several hours.
Start with the consequences of an outage
Which activities stop when the application fails? How long is a manual workaround practical? How much recently entered data is it acceptable to lose during recovery? The answers determine which measures are needed.
These may include redundant infrastructure, tested backups and Glossary · In briefmonitoringMonitoring systematically tracks software, infrastructure or processes through measurements and checks. Deviations can trigger alerts so an administrator can investigate.Read more. Agreements about availability of support, responsibilities and recovery matter too. A high availability target alone says little about what happens during an incident.
Keep changes manageable
Business-critical software still needs maintenance and development. Automated tests, controlled releases and a recovery plan help teams make changes without unnecessary risk to daily operations. Preventing every outage is not a realistic assumption; being able to identify and recover from failures is.