[belter]

Completely disagree with the aproach humans are not perfect. This was not a one opportunity only event. Every test case they did not run, every load simulation they did not perform, every chaos test they decided to overlook was an example of humans failing repeatedly. Massive websites were running since the early nineties...And robust software practices are a thing of the sixties.

[WJW]

Agreed, but this was not a solid company in the first place. Rather, Digg was (according to TFA) a failing startup losing money hand over fist that was launching v4 as a hail mary. They were so hard up that no hardware was available for hosting the new environment, so they started reusing v3 servers for v4 while the migration was ongoing.

They bet it all on this v4 thing, and lost.

[dronf23]

Funny you should mention that there was no hardware available. Digg had a second cage full of servers in VA as part of a failed attempt to go multi-DC. If that project had ever worked out there would have been 50% more capacity. Those servers and network gear just sat there unused until they finally got liquidated for pennies on the dollar.