Is it me? Or is this new expansion of a lousy idea likely to lead to more issues?
Real-Time?
Nothing says “real-time” like a polling process that also comes with menu options to override it.
As I understand it, sync has a five-minute latency because it is polling for changes. By definition, this is not real-time. It may be suitable for many business applications, but it should be called what it really is.
Sync is Copying
There’s no other way to explain what sync does except make a duplicate of your data. Duplication of any data is a bad idea. This is the stark difference between using data by reference vs value. Leaning on data values that are copied is architecturally unsound. Why? Latency.
Latency is antithetical to real-time, and real-time is needed to avoid being misled by your data.
Latency is just the tip of the rolling iceberg. Imagine Base (x) syncs to base (y), and then base (z) uses an API call into base (a) for data that is about to change in base (y). Now you have layers of dependencies that are at risk in new ways. e.g., what if one of the sync processes is disrupted?
Events and Messaging
In 2018 I asked Airtable engineers if sockets-level integration was on the roadmap. Crickets. I asked again in 2019, 2020, and 2021. I stopped asking because they’re apparently not considering a modern communications layer between Airtable bases and external systems or other internal bases.
As early as 2018, I wanted to wire up a base with real-time motor-vehicle accident events directly from first responder agencies. This never happened, of course. Events didn’t make a debut for another three years, and there’s still no communications infrastructure that would support real-time messaging.
Polling
Much has been said about the massive polling cesspool pushed upon Airtable instances through the API by the likes of Make, Zapier, and other adhesives platforms designed mostly for immediate gratification at the cost of relentless performance hits.
Upwards of 99% of all API calls in a polling architecture are wasteful. They draw energy from container-based Airtable instances with fixed compute stack resources. So, what does Airtable do? Double down on this risky idea, of course.
If the Interwebs were entirely based on polling, it would have collapsed 20 years ago. We got smarter, though, and realized polling models should be voided at almost all costs.
Airtable appears to be adding technical debt that could result in an overall performance crisis depending on how deeply makers latch on to this [seemingly] perfect feature that everyone has been asking for.
Am I being irrational? Is this yet another immediate gratification feature that will eventually require repayment with interest and principal?