Latency and Livelocks

ABSTRACT

Dear KV, My company has a very large database with all of our customer information. The database is replicated to several locations around the world to improve performance locally, so that when customers in Asia want to look at their data, they don't have to wait for it to come from the United States, where my company is based. A few months ago the company upgraded its software, which required all of the records in the customer database to be updated as well. When we tested the upgrade program it took only a few minutes to update a large number of records, but when we had to update the Asian customers, a process that had to run in Asia and that touched data in the U.S., the process began to take a lot longer. Since the company has a very fast network connecting the U.S. and the Asian offices, it's hard to understand how the distance could matter. There must be another reason for the time it is taking to run these programs.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  A. General Literature
  A.0 GENERAL