Netflix Chaos Engineering⁠‍⁠​‌​‌​​‌‌‍​‌​​‌​‌‌‍​​‌‌​​​‌‍​‌​​‌‌​​‍​​​​​​​‌‍‌​​‌‌​‌​‍‌​​​​​​​‍‌‌​​‌‌‌‌‍‌‌​​​‌​​‍‌‌‌‌‌‌​‌‍‌‌​‌​​​​‍​‌​‌‌‌‌‌‍​‌​​‌​‌‌‍​‌‌​‌​​‌‍‌​‌​‌‌‌​‍​​‌​‌​​​‍‌‌‌​‌​‌‌‍‌‌‌​‌‌​‌‍​‌‌​​‌‌‌‍​‌​‌‌​​​‍‌​‌​‌‌‌‌‍​​​​‌​‌​‍‌‌​​​‌​‌⁠‍⁠

Overview

Netflix invented chaos engineering in response to their 2008 migration to AWS. Facing the reality that cloud infrastructure fails unpredictably, they created Chaos Monkey—and eventually the entire Simian Army—to proactively inject failures and build confidence in system resilience.

The Pioneers

Casey Rosenthal (Father of Chaos Engineering)

Led Netflix's Chaos Engineering team from 2015, formalizing the discipline and co-authoring the definitive O'Reilly book. Now CEO of Verica. His key insight: chaos engineering is about building confidence, not breaking things.

Nora Jones

Co-pioneered chaos engineering at Netflix, co-authored the book, and later founded Jeli to apply these principles to incident analysis. Emphasized the human factors in resilience.

References