Increasingly, Internet-scale sites need to do more with less. The rapid commoditization of IaaS/PaaS services is an example of race towards the leanest CapEx/OpEx possible.

This is not without risks. One’s own balancing act of risks vs. rewards can be captured in the spectrum that I show in the picture  below.  For this, I was inspired by some readings I did a while ago on complexity theory and adaptive systems. Beware of being caught at either end!

Ideally, one would want to play near the “edge of chaos”, with the confidence that there is a way and a time to step on the brakes, without ever crossing into chaos.

Some R&D projects fall in the realm of catalysts, in that they thrust towards greater risk/reward operating points. Examples include oversubscribing power, network, DR resources.

Some other R&D projects fall in the realm of “chillers” (which sounds less dire than the traditional inhibitor word). Service level management is an example. It may shape and/or rate limit traffic within a given service level envelope.

Has anyone developed similar taxonomies? Your thoughts?