&gt; In a reasonably well-behaved datacenter environment, the timing assumptions will be satisfied most of the time – this is known as a partially synchronous system [12]. But is that good enough?<p>Please consider this answer [0] (which I personally understood as - YES, real systems are always partial sync):
&quot;Asynchronous systems have no fixed upper bounds. In practice, systems tend to exhibit partial synchrony, which is described as one of two models by Dwork and Lynch in Consensus in the Presence of Partial Synchrony. [1]&quot;<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;bravenewgeek.com&#x2F;category&#x2F;distributed-systems-2&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;bravenewgeek.com&#x2F;category&#x2F;distributed-systems-2&#x2F;</a><p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;groups.csail.mit.edu&#x2F;tds&#x2F;papers&#x2F;Lynch&#x2F;jacm88.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;groups.csail.mit.edu&#x2F;tds&#x2F;papers&#x2F;Lynch&#x2F;jacm88.pdf</a>