Is Partition Tolerance Optional?

Coda Hale has an excellent post in which he questions if partition tolerance (the P in Brewer's CAP theorem) is optional. It boils down to the fact that some NoSQL databases claim to be CA, that is consistent and available while completely disregarding partition tolerance. Hale implies this isn't possible and that it means that "developers of these systems do not understand the the CAP theorem and its implications"

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