On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 13:28:11 -0700, Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales jwales@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