Component whose failure would cause the entire system or process to stop working.
A Single Point of Failure (SPOF) is any component whose failure would cause dependent systems or processes to stop working—no redundancy, no alternative. SPOFs exist in hardware (single server, single network link), software (single application instance), processes (single person with critical knowledge), and services (single vendor for critical function). Identifying and addressing SPOFs is fundamental to resilience. Not all SPOFs need elimination—accept some and mitigate others based on risk.
Why It Matters
The DSC Perspective:
SPOFs are where failures cascade into outages. Identify your SPOFs—what single failures would stop operations? Address critical ones through redundancy, backup procedures, or acceptance with monitoring.