Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 7-2. Scale versus complexity
Both the Enterprise incumbents and the start-ups are connected on that curve for any
given Big Data project. Ultimately, when they succeed, they tend to meet in the middle.
Dijkstra foresaw this relationship quite clearly:
Computing's core challenge is how not to make a mess of it. If people object that any
science has to meet that challenge, we should give a double rebuttal. Firstly, machines are
so fast and storage capacities are so huge that we face orders of magnitude more room
for confusion, the propagation and diffusion of which are easily inadvertently mecha‐
nized. Secondly, because we are dealing with artefacts, all unmastered complexity is of
our own making; there is no one else to blame and so we had better learn how not to
introduce the complexity in the first place.
1
— Edsger Dijkstra
The next fifty years
