A deus ex machina used to perform an extremely complex task in one fell swoop. Often used sarcastically to imply that a task presumed easy is in fact difficult or impossible to automate.

Takes its name from the huge levers used in black and white Frankenstein films to activate the elaborate mechanism used to reanimate The Creature, usually resulting in electrical discharge and cries of "it's alive!!!"
Boss: "Can you migrate all of our users to the new database, change the domain of everyone's email and redirect all traffic to the new datacentre ASAP?"

IT staff: "Sure. I'll just pull this Frankenstein switch..."
by sproates April 13, 2010
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