> If your operating at google/fb/apple scale then yes you can have this approach. There are lots of business that DON't need, want or have to scale to this leve

> If your operating at google/fb/apple scale then yes you can have this approach. There are lots of business that DON't need, want or have to scale to this level. There are lots of systems where this approach breaks down. I used to work at Yandex which is not Google but had hundreds of thousands of servers in runtime nevertheless. So definitely cattle. Still the CTO of search repeatedly said things like "It's your production? Then ssh into a random instance, attach with gdb and look at the stacks. Is it busy doing what you think it should be doing?" Dealing with cattle means spending a lot of time in the barn not in the books.