The open question is "What is the cost of fragmentation?"
The cost has some absolute components and some relative components. Since fragmentation is difficult to avoid except through grotesque over-allocation of space, the issue is to control fragmentation through normalization. A more important pair of questions, then, are these:
"How do we prevent storage fragmentation and the associated slow-down ?"
Why prevent ?
This is hard to respond to. The ounce-of-prevent-pound-of-cure didn't resonate with the reviewer. What would resonate? An in-depth discussion of the "prevention is an investment with an indefinite period of return and correction is an ongoing cost" doesn't …
more ...Perhaps this is heresy. Perhaps it merely shows that the orthodox may be focused on short-term delivery, not long-term value.
The client has a table we could describe as following the M.E.S.S. -- Multiple Entity Sub-Species -- design pattern. The hallmarks of this design are a …