I cannot agree more with what you wrote in your linked comment. People dramatically underestimate how far you can get with even a single machine and some sligh

I cannot agree more with what you wrote in your linked comment. People dramatically underestimate how far you can get with even a single machine and some slightly better engineering. Best ever example of this I've seen is the super impressive work done by Frank McSherry: http://www.frankmcsherry.org/assets/COST.pdf http://www.frankmcsherry.org/assets/COST.pdf http://www.frankmcsherry.org/graph/scalability/cost/2015/02/04/COST2.html http://www.frankmcsherry.org/graph/scalability/cost/2015/02/...