availabilitydescribes

Availabilitydescribes is a term used in information management and service documentation to denote a descriptive attribute that explains the availability of a resource, service, or system. It may appear as a field in data models, an annotation in configuration files, or a value in a service catalogue. The term does not denote a metric by itself but rather provides context for how availability is measured and perceived.

Typical usage involves a descriptive entry that accompanies quantitative availability data. For example, a resource object might include availabilitydescribes: “Target uptime of 99.9% per calendar month; maintenance windows Sundays 02:00–04:00 UTC; outages limited to non-critical functions.” It can also describe operational conditions that affect accessibility, such as “read-only during backups” or “unavailable during region-wide failures,” offering human-readable guidance for users and operators.

Relation to related concepts: Availability is the probability that a system is accessible when required, often expressed as a percentage or uptime figure. Availabilitydescribes provides a narrative that explains how that availability is achieved or constrained, complementing quantitative metrics. In metadata practices, it resembles descriptive metadata and supports governance, searchability, and SLA clarity.

Limitations and recommendations: The combined form availabilitydescribes can be ambiguous; many standards prefer separate properties such as availability and description or availability_description. When used, definitions should specify scope, measurement period, dependencies, and maintenance implications to avoid misinterpretation and ensure consistency across systems and teams. See also availability, service level agreement, uptime, and descriptive metadata.