High Availability (HA) means a system or service is designed to stay continuously available with minimal downtime thanks to redundancy, failover mechanisms, and backup components. HA mode ensures that even if hardware, software, or part of the infrastructure fails, the service remains available to users.
Examples of HA for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs)
- Cloud services – run on redundant infrastructure, so if one server goes down, the service continues running.
- Redundant internet – two independent connections from different ISPs with automatic failover.
- Backup servers / virtual machines (VMs) – if the primary fails, the standby takes over immediately.
- UPS and backup power – protect against power outages.
For SMBs, this means less downtime and higher reliability, even when something fails.