When critical systems such as data centers and trading floors crash, companies can experience millions of dollars in losses every hour .With the economic crisis impacting on the bottom lines of many organizations, the issue of critical environment integrity is high on the agenda. While companies recognize that no expense can be spared when ensuring the reliability of the infrastructure that represents a firm’s lifeblood, over 70% of failures result from human error. Many organizations today face significant risk because they do not have adequate programs in place to prevent human-error incidents. This report outlines the importance of a rigorous critical environment management (CEM) program and provides insight into the key elements that must be addressed in order to ensure maximum business ‘up-time’ by minimizing error and enhancing response to incidents.