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The parent commenter is saying (or rather, insinuating) that GitLab's outage is symptomatic of a broader problem in the software industry, vis á vis unnecessary
by throwawaymath 8y ago
The parent commenter is saying (or rather, insinuating) that GitLab's outage is symptomatic of a broader problem in the software industry, vis á vis unnecessary complexity.
I think it was worded a bit harshly, but there's a kernel of truth there. I don't mean to pile onto GitLab in particular, but take a look at this open proposal for hardware upgrades at GitLab in late 2016: https://about.gitlab.com/2016/12/11/proposed-server-purchase-for-gitlab-com/ https://about.gitlab.com/2016/12/11/proposed-server-purchase.... I don't think I can do a better job of explaining what's wrong with that proposal than this thread, from the ensuing HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13153860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13153860.
Our industry is plagued with architecture decisions that pile layers and layers of complexity onto otherwise straightforward technical problems in pursuit of scalable abstraction. Even companies that legitimately have to think about "scale" choose architectures which technically impressive but brittle in practice.