[OSM-dev] all things to all people

[SteveC]

On 22 Apr 2008, at 15:48, Richard Fairhurst wrote:

> SteveC wrote:
>
>> Thats not the point, its not about x number of CPU seconds per  
>> request
>> - its that the statistics are fundamentally different for, say,
>> running a WMS and running a tile server. One scales, one doesn't.
>
> But IMHO the export tab isn't really like running a WMS. A WMS is
> basically an API

Again not the point - I'm using it as shorthand for 'static maps'  
which is what we all used back before tiled maps existed. Remember  
them? Slow? Poor quality? That's because even Microsoft with MapPoint  
and TerraServer couldn't scale it well (you can relive those happy  
times on expedia.co.uk and try mapping some hotels out).

This stuff is all fine now, my point is that if you have a reasonable  
number of users and then double the number of tile users you can  
probably do it on the same hardware with negligible QoS drop. If you  
double the number of WMS / static maps / export tab users you will  
halve or more the QoS. Thats what scaling is about.

Best

Steve