In a distributed system ... there is no now

This paper is a discussion around the issues faced by distributed systems when dealing with time, ordering and failures. This is particularly relevant with the work I am doing at the moment designing a very large distributed system that will need to scale massively.

It is remarkably readable and illustrates key issues and limitations in the field. It has already got me researching other areas mentioned in the paper.

Links

There Is No Now

Random Posts

The loosely held product roadmap

In a recent article by Ryan Singer, Options, Not Roadmaps, he explains why he doesn’t use roadmaps - he uses options instead.


Read More

Decide who decides

As many of my posts start, I was listening to a podcast. This was a startup founder who was talking about the company she started with a partner and how they handled decisions where the two of them didn’t agree about something.


Read More

Avoiding regrets

When my daughter was at nursery I missed a show she was in. Unknown to me, she had the leading role and I missed it because of a work meeting.


Read More