The Origin of Quorum Systems
Marko Vukolić · Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science · 2010
A quorum system is a collection of subsets of nodes, called quorums, with the property that each pair of quorums have a non-empty intersection. Quorum systems are the key mathematical abstraction for ensuring consistency in fault-tolerant and highly available distributed computing. This paper is a brief overview of the evolution of quorum systems, with emphasis on their role in two fundamental applications: distributed storage and replication.