One day Mickey was watching TV at his home when he heard Minnie calling him out
Minnie: Hey Mickey
Mickey: Hi Minnie, how are you
Minnie: I need to talk to you
Mickey: Okay come inside
Mickey: Hey Minnie, what happened?
Minnie: Mickey, what’s this Chaos Engineering thing I heard about? Is it something messy? Chaos sounds scary!
Mickey: (chuckles) Oh, Minnie, it’s not as scary as it sounds. Let me explain. Imagine you have a super big castle where many people live, and it has all kinds of systems – like water, lights, doors, and even a magic elevator. Now, what happens if suddenly, the lights go out or the elevator stops working?
Minnie: Oh no, that would be terrible! Everyone would panic
Mickey: Exactly! That’s why you’d want to test what would happen if something like that occurred.
Chaos Engineering is like pretending something is broken to see how well the castle—and its people—can handle the problem
Minnie: Hmm… so you’re causing problems on purpose?
Mickey: Yes! But in a controlled way. Imagine this: You’re the castle manager, and one day, you say, “What if the elevator stops working? Will people still be able to get to the top floor?” So, you pretend the elevator is broken for a while and watch how everyone reacts. Do they find another way up? Are there backup stairs? Did anyone get stuck?
Minnie: Oh! So, it’s like practicing for emergencies
Mickey: That’s right!
Chaos engineering involves intentionally introducing faults into a system to test its resilience and identify potential failure points
Chaos Engineering got its name because it involves introducing chaos—or disruptions—into a system to test its ability to handle unexpected problems.
Minnie: So, it’s about finding weak spots and fixing them?
Mickey: Spot on, Minnie! The name originated from Netflix, a pioneer in this field
Minnie: I get it now! It’s like testing the safety nets before doing a big trapeze act
Mickey: Perfect analogy! Chaos Engineering is like testing the safety nets in your computer systems. Big companies like Netflix do this all the time
Minnie: Netflix? What do they do?
Mickey: Well, Netflix is like the kingdom’s movie theater, right? Millions of people watch movies at the same time. They want to make sure their system works even if something breaks—like if one part of the castle’s internet stops working
Minnie: Oh, so they pretend parts of the internet are broken to see if people can still watch movies?
Mickey: Exactly! They even created something called Chaos Monkey—a little troublemaker that turns off random parts of their system to see if everything keeps running smoothly
Minnie: That’s clever! So, Chaos Engineering is like training for the unexpected?
Mickey: You got it, Minnie! It’s about making systems strong and ready for surprises. That way, when something really goes wrong, everyone knows what to do, and the kingdom can stay happy
Minnie: Ok, a doubt. Is it like resilience testing or fault injection?
Mickey: That’s a great question, Minnie! They’re related, but chaos engineering is bigger and more structured. Let me explain
Minnie: Okay, go on!
Mickey: Imagine you’re running a theme park. Resilience testing is like checking if the rides can handle a sudden power outage and still restart safely. You’re testing one specific thing: can the rides recover?
Minnie: Oh, so it’s focused on seeing if a system can bounce back from a problem?
Mickey: Exactly! Now, Fault injection is like intentionally cutting power to a single ride—maybe to Space Mountain—to see what happens. You’re causing a specific failure to test the response.
Minnie: Got it! So you’re creating problems on purpose?
Mickey: Yep! Now here’s where chaos engineering comes in. It’s like running a big park-wide test where random things go wrong—a ride stops, a popcorn machine overheats, and a parade gets delayed—all at the same time!
Minnie: Wow, that sounds… chaotic
Mickey: Now you know
Minnie: Wow, Mickey! You made it so simple. I’m going to tell everyone in the kingdom about Chaos Engineering
Mickey: (laughs) That’s great, Minnie. Just remember, chaos isn’t scary—it’s an opportunity to make things better!
Minnie: I feel so good now
Mickey: So do you want to go home now
Minnie: No Mickey, let’s sit here for some more time. You are my best friend
Mickey: I am always here for you 🙂
