注意，这里可用性（英文Availability）是和易用性（英文Usability）不同的两个概念。 在电信和可靠性理论中，可用性是指：

例如，一个一周里（168小时）有100小时可用的单元的可用性为100/168。可用性的值通常用小数来表示（如0.9998）。在高可用性的应用中，使用一个被称为几个九的度量，对应小数点后9的个数。在这个系统中，“五个九”相当于0.99999（或者99.999%）的可用性。

In reliability theory and reliability engineering, the term availability has the following meanings:

For example, a unit that is capable of being used 100 hours per week (168 hours) would have an availability of 100/168. However, typical availability values are specified in decimal (such as 0.9998). In high availability applications, a metric known as nines, corresponding to the number of nines following the decimal point, is used. With this convention, "five nines" equals 0.99999 (or 99.999%) availability.