It is impossible to build a failure-proof software system. Sure, a system can go through its lifecycle without any failures. But you can’t provide a guarantee that it will never fail.
You might think that if we write perfect code, we can get rid of failures. But writing correct application code is just one part of the problem. Even perfectly written software depends on a physical computer, power availability, working storage, and so on. If the machine loses power, the software will fail no matter how good it is.
Therefore, you have to design for failure. This means deciding in advance how a system should behave when some of its parts are not working correctly. In this article, we’ll look at the various strategies that can help developers deal with failures in their systems. Here’s what we will cover:
Why adopt an “assume everything breaks” mindset
Avoiding faults vs tolerating faults
How to figure out the scope of a failure
How to reduce the impact of a failure
How to handle failures while running the system correctly
How to measure recovery from failures
