CLOUDFLARE introduces Meerkat, a new distributed consensus service designed to manage control-plane data across its 330+ global data centers. Unlike traditional consensus algorithms like Raft that rely on a leader, Meerkat uses the QuePaxa algorithm, allowing all replicas to perform writes simultaneously and avoiding single points of failure. This enhances both availability and fault tolerance, ensuring that the system remains operational even if some replicas fail.
Meerkat is structured to provide strong consistency (linearizability) and to handle various faults while managing operations such as key-value stores. Its architecture supports redundancy and enables developers to place replicas strategically to minimize latency. While still in development, Meerkat promises to revolutionize how global data systems operate, targeting control-plane data that needs reliable consistency.