Low Availability
Low availability is a system design concept where a service or application is intentionally designed to have minimal uptime or reliability, often as a trade-off for other benefits like cost, simplicity, or development speed. It contrasts with high availability, which prioritizes continuous operation and fault tolerance. This approach is typically used in non-critical systems where occasional downtime is acceptable, such as internal tools, development environments, or prototypes.
Developers should consider low availability when building systems where occasional failures or downtime have minimal business impact, such as in proof-of-concept projects, staging environments, or internal administrative tools. It reduces complexity and costs by avoiding redundant infrastructure, making it suitable for scenarios where rapid iteration or resource constraints are priorities over reliability.