PACELC theorem

[2] There are four configurations or tradeoffs in the PACELC space: PC/EC and PA/EL provide natural cognitive models for an application developer.

[3] 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.

[5] The PACELC theorem was first described by Daniel Abadi from Yale University in 2010 in a blog post,[2] which he later clarified in a paper in 2012.