Limitations of a Distributed System, the CUP Theorem

We examine the CAP theorem (PACELC) and its impact on the design of distributed business systems.

CAP Theorem: Choosing Two out of Three

When building distributed systems, we always face the limitations of CAP theory: Consistency, Availability, and Partition Tolerance.

What Should a Business Choose?

• CP (Consistency + Partition Tolerance): Important for banking and financial systems, where data must be accurate everywhere and always, even at the cost of temporary unavailability.
• AP (Availability + Partition Tolerance): Ideal for social networks and catalogs, where it is more important for the user to quickly see at least some result than perfectly fresh data.