Boris Renski

Over the history of computing, we can trace a pattern of continuous decomposition, from a single system into disparate components. Early on, these individual parts made it easier to design, program and maintain systems, and meet the fast-growing demand for more power and more capacity. The industry began with the mainframe, where the entire stack from hardware to application logic was contained in a single box. The next phase was the move from mainframe to client-server. This was followed by SOA (service-oriented architecture). This process of decomposition is a natural byproduct of growth in scale. As we consume increasingly more computing and storage, efficiency gains are achieved through specialization. Such continuous decomposition is a typical pattern of many industries. Several centuries ago, the model was subsistence farming, where every family as a single un... (more)