A system’s criticality classification is important in large organizations because it provides for proper prioritization and scheduling of security and maintenance tasks. A system’s criticality classification is the level of importance or impact that a system has on the organization’s mission, objectives, operations, or functions. A system’s criticality classification may depend on factors such as the system’s availability, integrity, confidentiality, functionality, performance, or reliability. A system’s criticality classification helps the organization to allocate resources, implement controls, perform audits, apply patches, conduct backups, and respond to incidents according to the system’s priority and risk. A system’s criticality classification does not necessarily reduce critical system support workload or the time required to apply patches, as these may depend on other factors such as the system’s complexity, configuration, or vulnerability. A system’s criticality classification may allow for clear systems status communications to executive management, but this is not the primary reason for its importance. A system’s criticality classification may provide for easier determination of ownership, but this is not the main benefit of its importance.