You see this today. Two groups start; one group uses an easy-to-use system, and another uses a not-so-easy-to-use system. The first group gets done first, and the competition is over. The winners move forward and the other guys go home. — A conversation with Jim Gray
I really need to learn this.
By the way, Jim Gray talks about his TerraServer SneakerNet, too:
DP Are you sending them a whole PC?
JG Yes, an Athlon with a Gigabit Ethernet interface, a gigabyte of RAM, and seven 300-GB disks—all for about $3,000.
DP It’s your capital cost to implement the Jim Gray version of “Netflicks.”
JG Right. We built more than 20 of these boxes we call TeraScale SneakerNet boxes.