Case history: CNN on 9/11
Monday, February 08, 2010
1:49 PM
Bill Lefebre: head of operations at cnn.com on 9/11/2001
Ridiculous, unforeseen request volume. 
Server instances provisioned manually crashed before they could come up. 
Final solution: shut down cnn for 1/2 hour, reboot everything, bring all servers up at once. 
Moral: in incredible circumstances, provisioning is not enough!