CAP Theorem
/kæp ˈθiərəm/CAP the·o·remnoun
Definition
1.[in distributed systems] the result that when a network splits, a replicated store must give up either answering every request or returning the newest written value — it cannot preserve both.
The CAP theorem forced the choice: reject writes during a partition, or serve stale reads.
Etymology
An acronym for consistency, availability and partition tolerance. Conjectured by Eric Brewer in a 2000 keynote and proved by Seth Gilbert and Nancy Lynch in 2002.
Synonyms
- Brewer's theoremsense 1 · Absolute