On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 13:28:11 -0700, Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales
<jwales(a)wikia.com> wrote:
Bill Clark wrote:
> Maybe the French systems administrators and network engineers would
> have a different way of approaching a problem that wouldn't ever be
> tried if all of the servers remained in Florida.
I find it difficult to imagine why this would be the
case.
Different local policies. I've had servers in many different
datacenters at different times, and no two places seem to do things
the same way. The same goes for engineering teams.
This is part of the reason a lot of large companies set up R&D shops
that are geographically and culturally distinct from their main
engineering teams. You don't want everyone thinking the same, because
it invariably leads to stagnation. If everyone responsible for
physical management of the clusters is in the same place, they're
likely to end up thinking the same way (which is a good thing too, at
least in terms of everyone getting along).
I'm probably wrong in this instance, though. There are enough people
who can simply download the software and build their own custom
clusters if they wanted, so this situation isn't really comparable to
an in-house R&D team. In a sense, we ALREADY have many, many
independent R&D shops, each with their own hardware.
(Sorry, I correct and/or contradict myself all the time, because I
like brainstorming ideas more than I do editing them... which ties in
with my whole anti-centralization philosophy -- I don't want to
unilaterally censor any ideas that pop into my head, but would rather
voice them even if I have my doubts about their viability.)
I'll cheerfully withdraw my suggestion that there's any significant
benefit to keeping the servers separate, in this case. :)
-Bill Clark