"Strong consistency models" is a very clear article on the problems of working with data, its all from the past, and collaborating with sometimes disconnected processes. The comments are good too.
Network partitions are going to happen. Switches, NICs, host hardware, operating systems, disks, virtualization layers, and language runtimes, not to mention program semantics themselves, all conspire to delay, drop, duplicate, or reorder our messages. In an uncertain world, we want our software to maintain some sense of intuitive correctness.
Well, obviously we want intuitive correctness. Do The Right Thing™! But what exactly is the right thing? How might we describe it? In this essay, we’ll take a tour of some “strong” consistency models, and see how they fit together.
