Re:Introducing Cloud Spanner, a Global Database Service
by throwawaydbfif on Wednesday February 15, 2017 @07:06AM
(#13651412)
I'm saying I doubt they will ever offer it precisely because it will conflict with their paid offerings. The fact that it takes its hardware is a great excuse to not give your customers the option.
I know GPS time sources have been available forever but a fault tolent database needs a backup. The US GPS is incredibly reliable but there have been multiple issues with both Glonass and Galilio.
It sounds like Google has an additional time source making this possible, probably a highly miniaturized atomic clock, possibly on a single chip. There's no way they're running on GPS alone
Re:Introducing Cloud Spanner, a Global Database Service
by detaro on Wednesday February 15, 2017 @10:21AM
(#13652575)
Yes, they clearly say that they use atomic clocks in addition, but that's commercially available as well. Atomic clock for frequency stability short- to mid-term, GPS to keep it synced to global time. E.g. in many cases, mobile-phone base stations contain just such a setup, and the data-center versions should fit in a few HE.
Re:Introducing Cloud Spanner, a Global Database Service
by stuckagain on Wednesday February 15, 2017 @12:06PM
(#13653454)
And then all you need is a team of 12 full time SREs to manage it.
Re:Introducing Cloud Spanner, a Global Database Service
by detaro on Thursday February 16, 2017 @01:21AM
(#13658098)
A system build on top of it? Possibly, but thats the trade-off if you don't want to pay for/be lock-in to somebody else running it. For just the timing stuff: not really. Of course it adds complexity, but these things are established and should be quite stable.
Only "new" in the sense that it is currently not commonly offered, the devices themselves have been available for ages. (If you are a large enough customer you apparently can get at least some colo-facilities to provide you with the roof-access and cabling needed for the antennas). If cloud providers make precise time available I don't see much potential for locking you in with their specific way of providing it, as long as it ends up as precise system time in some way.