Raft Consensus
Raft is a consensus algorithm designed for managing a replicated log in distributed systems, ensuring fault tolerance and consistency across multiple servers. It provides a clear and understandable alternative to Paxos by separating key elements like leader election, log replication, and safety into modular components. The algorithm is widely used in distributed databases and systems to maintain agreement on a sequence of operations even in the presence of failures.
Developers should learn Raft when building or working with distributed systems that require strong consistency, such as distributed databases (e.g., etcd, CockroachDB), key-value stores, or cluster management tools. It is particularly valuable for scenarios where system reliability and fault tolerance are critical, as it simplifies the implementation of consensus compared to more complex algorithms like Paxos, making it easier to debug and maintain.