fault tolerance
What It Means
Fault tolerance means your AI systems keep working even when something breaks - whether it's a server crash, network outage, or software bug. Instead of your entire system going down when one component fails, fault-tolerant systems automatically switch to backup components or alternate pathways to maintain service.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
Without fault tolerance, a single point of failure can shut down critical AI services, leading to lost revenue, damaged customer trust, and potential regulatory violations. For AI systems that support real-time decision making or customer-facing applications, even brief outages can cost millions and harm your company's reputation in ways that take years to recover from.
Real-World Example
A major e-commerce company's AI recommendation engine uses fault tolerance by running identical copies across three different data centers - when one center loses power during a storm, customers never notice because the system automatically routes all traffic to the remaining centers while maintaining the same personalized shopping experience.
Common Confusion
People often confuse fault tolerance with disaster recovery - fault tolerance prevents disruptions in real-time as failures occur, while disaster recovery is about restoring systems after they've already gone down. Fault tolerance is proactive and immediate, disaster recovery is reactive and takes time.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare AI systems, fault tolerance is critical for maintaining patient safety and regulatory compliance, as syste...
Finance: In finance, fault tolerance is critical for trading systems, payment processing, and regulatory reporting where downtime...
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Includes:
- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"The ability of a system or component to continue normal operation despite the presence of hardware or software faults"Source: SP1011
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