Criticality is the impact that the loss of an asset will have, or how important the asset is to the business. For example, if the loss of a specific IT system would prevent orders from being processed until the system is returned to a usable state, it is most definitely critical to the business. On the other hand, payroll processing is not as critical – while the permanent loss of the ability to pay employees would certainly cause a mass exodus of people at some point, we can probably absorb a lengthier downtime.
