Availability refers to the extent to which a system, service, or resource is accessible and usable when needed. In information technology and cybersecurity, availability is one of the three key components of the CIA triad, which also includes confidentiality and integrity. Ensuring high availability is crucial for critical systems and services that require constant uptime, such as emergency response systems, financial transaction platforms, and cloud-based services. Availability can be compromised through various means, including hardware failures, software bugs, and cyber-attacks like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, which flood a system with more traffic than it can handle. To safeguard against these issues, organizations often implement redundancies, load balancing, and backup systems. Metrics such as uptime and response time are commonly used to measure the availability of a system. In broader contexts, availability can also refer to the ease with which resources like information, utilities, or support can be accessed by those who need them.