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John Spacey, January 26, 2016 updated on February 08, 2017
Fault tolerance is the ability to continue when an error occurs. In the past, technologies were often designed to simply give up and display an error message at the first sign of a problem. Modern systems, processes, products and equipment are more likely to overcome errors and continue. The following are illustrative examples.
Input FlexibilityIf a user enters data that isn't in the format an ecommerce site expects, the site attempts to understand the data anyway.ValidationAn application for a banking application performs validation on user input to improve data quality and prevent errors. Users are asked to correct data that doesn't look right.In the past, it was common for devices to completely shut down at the first sign of a serious error. Engineers reasoned that results might be unpredictable when a device continues to operate in the face of errors. This isn't typically what customers want as products and services that continue on get more respect. As such, it is increasingly common for products and services to continue to offer as much functionality as possible when errors are occurring.
SafetyGraceful degradation is taken to extremes in situations where failure may be a safety risk. For example, a car may automatically limit speed but allow the vehicle to be driven when a major component has failed. This is done because it is dangerous for a car to come to a sudden stop in areas such as a major highway.Self HealingDevices may perform self healing functions that not only continue when an error occurs but automatically repair the error with time. For example, an operating system may automatically repair broken files in the background and mark unreliable segments of data storage as unusable.
Reliability Engineering
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