@AMS @0x2ba22e11 @mhoye These are all pretty reasonable definitions, but I think the fundamental distinction is just: we need more than one commodity server to store or process the data fast enough for our purposes vs one commodity server will do That is to say, do we have a coordination/distribution/parallelism problem to solve, or not? I specify a generic commodity server so that we don't have to think about exotica like Oxide or IBM z or whatever OCP-adjacent system the FAAMNGs are using: those are all solutions on the big side. If you can configure and buy it without talking to a salescritter, have it arrive within 30 days and then put it on a desk or in a rack, it's a commodity server, close enough.