Food for Thought - What Restaurants Can Teach Us about Reliability

Explore the parallels between restaurant operations and computer system reliability in this 30-minute conference talk from SREcon21. Discover how the complex systems within restaurants, from the dining floor to the kitchen, offer valuable insights into managing and improving the reliability of computer services. Learn about common failure points, component interactions, and communication strategies that apply to both industries. Gain a fresh perspective on fault tolerance, user experience, and system interdependencies by examining familiar restaurant scenarios. Understand how different areas of a restaurant, such as the bar and the kitchen, relate to various aspects of computer systems and their unique challenges. Apply these real-world analogies to enhance your approach to reliability engineering and complex system management in the tech industry.

Introduction
Restaurant Failures
Restaurant Components
Complex Systems
Component Complex Systems
The Floor
Food Delivery
Bar
Bar vs Floor
Multiple User Classes
The Kitchen
Hierarchy
Formalized Communications