Testing products is never easy. But in the case of data protection software, it becomes even more difficult. This is because backups are too dispersed and diverse, coming from a thousand different sources over different networks.

So when one of the leading brands in the PC Backup business said they were using ‘The Chicken Gun Theory’ to test their software, I knew this would be interesting.

Their inspiration was apparently a recent Discovery Network program on the Airbus A380, where the aircraft was tested for impact analysis. About 75% of air collisions happen because of mid-air bird impacts. In the past, the simplest solution was to make the aluminum sheet thicker (about 0.8mm). Because of the new A380′s weight, they decided to try a new approach and design a new lighter material.

As a base, they took a thinner 0.6mm aluminum sheet. But this time, rather than trying the usual impact analysis, they created a real life scenario. They created a Chicken Gun – a gun capable of firing a 1 kg skinned chicken at 260 mph towards an aluminum target.

The results of this testing were completely unexpected. The chicken actually tore the aluminum foil apart – like paper. And so, the manufactures had to develop a new material that combined glass-fiber and aluminum.

For the PC Backup business being discussed, this was an eye opener. They are now in the process of building three new test suites for: