Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Realistic Scalability

Everybody seems to focus on adding processors and memory (or complete nodes) when they talk about scalability, but not a lot of mention is made about adding new people to manage the systems. True scalability should, in my opinion, include factors like the cost of human labour. You've designed a new system: great! It runs with only 20 errors a day on 1000 engines: super! It's linearly scalable, so your boss buys another 1000 engines: unfortunately, this means an extra 20 errors per day; this could mean another person needs to be added to the support team!