In this article, former Orbitz lead architect Brian Zimmer discusses scalability worst pratices. Topics covered include The Golden Hammer, Resource Abuse, Big Ball of Mud, Dependency Management, Timeouts, Hero Pattern, Not Automating, and Monitoring.
From the article:
One popular solution to the operation issue is a Hero who can and often will manage the bulk of the operational needs. The Hero Pattern can work in a small environment when one individual has the talent and capacity to understand an entire system, including the many nuances required to keep it functioning properly. For a large system of many components this approach does not scale, yet it is one of the most frequently-deployed solutions.
The Hero often understands service dependencies when no formal specification exists, remembers how to toggle features on and off or knows about systems everyone else has forgotten. The Hero is crucial but the Hero should not be an individual.
Read the full article here.