# Brownout (software engineering)

> Brownout in software engineering is a technique that involves disabling certain features of an application. Description Brownout is used to increase the robustness of an application to computing capacity shortage. If too many users are simultaneously accessing an application hosted online, the underlying computing infrastructure may become overloaded, rendering the application unresponsive. Users are likely […]

**Brownout** in software engineering is a technique that involves disabling certain features of an application.

## Description

Brownout is used to increase the robustness of an application to computing capacity shortage. If too many users are simultaneously accessing an application hosted online, the underlying computing infrastructure may become overloaded, rendering the application unresponsive. Users are likely to abandon the application and switch to competing alternatives, hence incurring long-term revenue loss. To better deal with such a situation, the application can be given brownout capabilities: The application will disable certain features – e.g., an online shop will no longer display recommendations of related products – to avoid overload. Although reducing features generally has a negative impact on the short-term revenue of the application owner, long-term revenue loss can be avoided.

The technique is inspired by brownouts in power grids, which consists in reducing the power grid’s voltage in case electricity demand exceeds production. Some consumers, such as incandescent light bulbs, will dim – hence originating

…

*Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownout_%28software_engineering%29)*

---

## Metadata

- **URL:** https://wpsearchai.com/brownout-software-engineering/
- **Published:** 2026-01-28T18:48:47+00:00
- **Modified:** 2026-01-28T18:48:47+00:00
- **Author:** admin
- **Categories:** Cloud computing