Back in the client-server era (late 90s), I had a customer with the database on the US West coast, and another user population in Europe. Due to network latency, performance was predictably poor. Applications that generate lots and lots of SQL are not happy in high latency environments.
I explained to the CIO, latency was dependent on the speed of light and time spent in the routers/switchs. The absolute latency floor is of course the speed of light (actually a fraction of the speed of light since the signal was going through copper/fiber/whatever). A fundamental limit due to the hard physical laws.
The only way to reduce latency is bring the devices closer together. I explained all this, did the calc to show latency.
The response? Fix it! I think I actually laughed.
I explained to the CIO, latency was dependent on the speed of light and time spent in the routers/switchs. The absolute latency floor is of course the speed of light (actually a fraction of the speed of light since the signal was going through copper/fiber/whatever). A fundamental limit due to the hard physical laws.
The only way to reduce latency is bring the devices closer together. I explained all this, did the calc to show latency.
The response? Fix it! I think I actually laughed.
