Virtual Consensus in Delos
Explore the innovative approach to consensus-based replicated systems presented in this USENIX OSDI '20 conference talk. Learn about virtualizing consensus through the shared log API, enabling services to change consensus protocols without downtime. Discover the VirtualLog, a generic reconfiguration layer, and Loglets, simple and composable ordering protocols. Examine the development of Delos, a production database leveraging virtual consensus for rapid deployment and protocol upgrades. Understand how Delos achieves significant performance improvements by dynamically changing consensus protocols, including scaling throughput and increasing failure thresholds. Gain insights into the challenges of building fault-tolerant systems and the potential for innovative research to reach production environments.