Flash Crowds
Caching is especially important to break up flash crowds. Flash crowds occur when a sudden event (such as breaking news, a bulk email announcement, or a celebrity event) causes many people to access a web document at nearly the same time (Screenshot 7-2). The resulting redundant traffic spike can cause a catastrophic collapse of networks and web servers.
(Screenshot 7-2.)
When the "Starr Report" detailing Kenneth Starr's investigation of U.S. President Clinton was released to the Internet on September 11, 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives web servers received over 3 million requests per hour, 50 times the average server load. One news web site, CNN.com, reported an average of over 50,000 requests every second to its servers.