Investing in chaos engineering as a strategic necessity

Adrian Hornsby, Amazon Web Services

January 2025 (document history)

Chaos engineering practices use controlled disruptions to identify system issues and opportunities to prevent outages and other incidents. Chaos engineering has become essential for improving resilient systems, but widespread adoption faces hurdles around misconceptions, cultural resistance, resources, and how to quantify business value. Setting initial goals helps to kick-start chaos engineering efforts, while quantifying return on investment (ROI) justifies continued investment—especially amid economic pressures.

This strategy document outlines a holistic approach to capture both quantitative operational improvements and qualitative organizational benefits. The ultimate aim is to treat chaos engineering as a strategic necessity akin to cybersecurity and not as a continual cost-justification exercise.