Answers
What is chaos testing?
In short
Chaos testing is the controlled injection of failures — instance kills, network partitions, latency spikes — to validate that resilience claims in runbooks actually hold under stress.
Short answer
Chaos testing is the controlled injection of failures — instance kills, network partitions, latency spikes — to validate that resilience claims in runbooks actually hold under stress.
What this actually means in practice
It's run with a defined blast radius, with the on-call team briefed, and with a hypothesis being tested. Outputs feed directly into the runbook and the resilience backlog.
The most common pitfall
Chaos without controls — production-impacting failures that the on-call team didn't know were coming.
What to do next
Run a tabletop chaos exercise before the first live one.
Frequently asked questions
Does Forth Systems help with this?
Yes — Forth Systems works with banks, payment institutions, insurers and infrastructure operators on exactly this kind of work. Engagements start with a fixed-scope assessment so you see the shape before committing.
How experienced is the team?
Engagements are staffed by named, UK-based senior engineers — not a rotating offshore pool. References from the second line of comparable clients are available on request.
Where are you based?
Edinburgh-based, delivering UK-wide with onsite presence in London and across Scotland as required.
How fast can we start?
Most engagements start within 2-4 weeks of a signed SoW, faster where an existing supplier framework is in place.