The document discusses how mission-critical IT continues to drive mission-critical business operations. It notes that major system outages continue to plague even large organizations, costing hundreds of thousands per incident on average. The interconnectedness of modern systems means reliability is more important than ever. More than a third of applications are now deemed mission-critical. While virtualization and automation have improved availability, most organizations remain in early stages of implementing next-generation infrastructure strategies. Truly mission-critical systems require high flexibility, scalability, and reliability combined.