CAP theorem

When choosing consistency over availability, the system will return an error or a time out if particular information cannot be guaranteed to be up to date due to network partitioning.

[11] In 2002, Seth Gilbert and Nancy Lynch of MIT published a formal proof of Brewer's conjecture, rendering it a theorem.

Some experts like Marc Brooker argue that the CAP theorem is particularly relevant in intermittently connected environments, such as those related to the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile applications.

In these contexts, devices may become partitioned due to challenging physical conditions, such as power outages or when entering confined spaces like elevators.

For distributed systems, such as cloud applications, it is more appropriate to use the PACELC theorem, which is more comprehensive and considers trade-offs such as latency and consistency even in the absence of network partitions.