> You youngsters may not realize that there were billing applications
> serving millions of customers long, long before there were any kind of
> database management systems. They employed concepts called "flat
> files" and "batch processing". And they ran on machines far weaker
> than anything any of you have on your desk today. Even under
> something like MS Windows, it would be absolutely possible to
> configure 3-5 high speed printers and knock out 100,000 bills per hour
> from an Intel single CPU box. You really have no appreciation of how
> much power you actually have at your disposal.
Perhaps you underestimate us, or me at least :-D . The precise reason I
am arguing against sharding is because I know that performant design
principles as well as optimization and other proper techniques make
voodoo like sharding a clever solution to a problem that shouldn't exist
with the raw power available in modern hardware. As I said in a previous
post, my old laptop could handle a DB that cost the equivalent of a
house to manage in a previous age of the IT history.
- Naz.
