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That's an important point. With mobile applications that support offline usage, you can no longer assume a single global source of truth, and the application as

That's an important point. With mobile applications that support offline usage, you can no longer assume a single global source of truth, and the application as a whole is AP. However, I'd argue that this tilts the balance even more in favor of a CP database on the backend. Even when the client application is not executing transactions on the database, consistency at the database level is what makes it possible to support secondary SQL indexes that work without surprises. An offline-capable mobile app buffers writes, moving the write to the server out of the critical path so server-side write-latency is not as visible to the user.

marknadal 9y ago
Yes, again if you are doing some transactional behavior like two users buying the last concert seat. However, making those apps be offline-first is kinda silly in the first place. The types of apps that naturally fit with mobile apps, client-facing behavior, are ones that have more append-only data structures (twitter, snapchat, messaging, etc.). Those apps benefit much more from an AP system rather than a CP system, because it makes the end user's (the client) life better/more-available. Again, the right tool for the job. And CockroachDB is certainly the right choice for the right problem. Well written article, keep it up!