Bloat

Bloat in an information technology context typically means software bloat, also sometimes called feature bloat. Software bloat is usually defined as adding new features to a program or system to the point where any benefits derived from the features are outweighed by the additional resources required for optimal software performance or the increased difficulty of use.

Software bloat has been described as a corollary of Parkinson’s Law; that is, resource requirements inevitably expand to consume the available resources.  Frequently mentioned examples of software bloat include BSD,OS/2 and almost any Microsoft product.

One of the major reasons for the ubiquity of software bloat is that software today is written at high levels of abstraction in order to make it easier to write programs. One consequence of this is a general increase in the number of instructions to be executed. Software bloat is also caused by companies dramatically increasing the number of marketing-related functions in applications. Software that has been on the market for a number of years also often tends toward bloating as updates are almost inevitably developed by several different groups of people.

All Idera software products are carefully designed and thoroughly tested to avoid software bloat. Idera SQL Diagnostic Manager, SQL Safe Backup, SQL Secure and other products provide you with all the features you need to get the job done and no legacy developer or marketing bloat.