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What does "availability" mean in programming?
availability is one of the most common terms in software development. This guide explains what it means, how it is used in practice, and why it matters, with real examples from the developer world.
Definition
The percentage of time a system is operational and accessible. Measured as uptime: 99.9% availability allows about 8.7 hours of downtime per year. High availability requires redundancy, load balancing, and failover mechanisms.
Example
"Our SLA guarantees 99.9% availability — no more than 8.7 hours of downtime per year."
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