Rig Intelligence

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A software engineer's experience coding in the oil field. *Tips, tricks and other things that seem interesting {to me}.

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A Philosophical View on Facebook’s Server Redundancy Strategy

Occam’s Razor says that the simplest theory is usually the best option (paraphrased), which was why I was happy to see that Facebook decided to utilize the law of parsimony for their backup data center.  Most companies are forced to perform daily data backups using HDDs that are continuously turned on, which causes an increase in cost and energy consumption.  Facebook announced today that they will be using a ‘sub-zero’ data center based out of Prineville, Oregon that will only turn on at scheduled intervals throughout the day (when needed).

Instead of consuming 4.5 kilowatts of power each day, the new redundancy system will only take 1.5 kilowatts.  This seems like a common sense notion that should have been utilized by server firms across the globe for years, right?  Sometimes common sense is discounted in an industry where everyone simply tries to sound like the smartest guy in the room, instead of being focused on being the one that does things right.

As great of a concept this is for emergency backup systems, this principle is sorely needed in the rest of the technology industry.  Each day we’re barraged with: apps, devices, and tools that supposedly were developed to make our lives easier, however I’ve discovered that they usually increase busy work while decreasing productivity.

I’ve tested a number of apps on my iOS devices, all promising to save time and money, however for a variety of reasons they all failed to work any better than their ‘old school’ alternative.

The technologies that will stand the test of time won’t be the shiny new feature rich gimmicks, instead they will be the easy to use applications that can be utilized by a wide range of ages/technical abilities and actually do promote efficiency.

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