The standardized width of US train tracks is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. And I learned in a recent forwarded e-mail from a certain senior in my life that this standard could be traced back through history to tramways in the UK that were built to that standard because wagon builders had spaced their wheels that far apart because the roads in the UK were rutted at that width because Imperial Roman chariots had created the ruts in the first place. The idea was, “set the standard early and history and its peoples will follow.”

Forwarded e-mails from a retired parent can be particularly difficult to slog through. However, the one referenced above was received recently and seemed as though it would be an excellent metaphor for Netflix being exceptionally forward thinking in taking the lead on establishing technical and industry standards for cloud data infrastructure. One small problem: with only just the bare minimum of research, I learned the content of that forwarded e-mail was lacking one important quality. The entire premise was untrue.

In fact, US railroads didn’t settle on the current standard until the Civil War. With the still relatively new implementation of the railroads before then, many lines had their own proprietary track widths. This prevented one locomotive from traveling on another railroad’s lines. And when we get down to it, that reality seems the better metaphor for where we are currently in the establishing of cloud protocols.

Changing Standards In The World of Data Management

In the ever-faster moving world of data management, we have seen the adoption and seemingly insensitive abandonment of data storage methods and products, always in favor of the next new standard. From the flimsy floppy to its smaller, sturdier cousin to compact discs to USB flash drives, we have transitioned each time to a more diminutive storage device. Each advance spelled near-immediate obsolescence for the preceding standard. And now we have transitioned to the most portable storage platform with a nearly-infinite capability, the cloud.

It makes sense, as one of the largest users of bandwidth in North America, that Netflix would choose to have some skin in the game when it comes to defining the infrastructure of the cloud. How they are going about it, as noted recently by Matt Asay over at ReadWrite, is rather egalitarian. As he states, “Much of Netflix’s influence on the industry has less to do with the quality of its software, which has generally been good, than it does with its willingness to share liberally.”

In fact, Netflix offers much of what, in the hands of many other companies, might be regarded as proprietary information. Their GitHub page offers access to any number of their open-source projects. Each of these projects could easily find applicability outside of the Netflix business model.

In providing so much assistance to anyone with the desire to peruse their code, Netflix is, to borrow from the second metaphor, trying (and expertly so, it would seem) to be the company to set the track width standard. By laying out a publicly available roadmap, it’s hard to see how other companies don’t adopt much of the Netflix cloud protocols.