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Scalability Rules Martin L. Abbott

Scalability Rules By Martin L. Abbott

Scalability Rules by Martin L. Abbott


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Scalability Rules Summary

Scalability Rules: Principles for Scaling Web Sites by Martin L. Abbott

Fully updated! Fifty Powerful, Easy-to-Use Rules for Supporting Hyper Growth

Whether youre taking on a role as a technology leader in a new company or you simply want to make great technology decisions, Scalability Rules will be the go-to resource on your bookshelf.

Chad Dickerson, CTO, Etsy

Scalability Rules, Second Edition, is the easy-to-use scalability primer and reference for every architect, developer, network/software engineer, web professional, and manager. Authors Martin L. Abbott and Michael T. Fisher have helped scale hundreds of high-growth companies and thousands of systems. Drawing on their immense experience, they present 50 up-to-the-minute technical best practices for supporting hyper growth practically anywhere.

Fully updated to reflect new technical trends and experiences, this edition is even easier to read, understand, and apply. Abbott and Fisher have also added powerful stories behind the rules: actual experiences and case studies from CTOs and technology executives at Etsy, NASDAQ, Salesforce, Shutterfly, Chegg, Warby Parker, Twitter, and other scalability pioneers.

Architects will find powerful technology-agnostic insights for creating and evaluating designs. Developers will discover specific techniques for handling everything from databases to state. Managers will get invaluable help in setting goals, making decisions, and interacting with technical teams. Whatever your role, youll find practical risk/benefit guidance for setting priorities, translating plans into action, and gaining maximum scalability at minimum cost.

Youll learn how to

  • Simplify architectures and avoid over-engineering
  • Design scale into your solution, so you can scale on a just-in-time basis
  • Make the most of cloning and replication
  • Separate functionality and split data sets
  • Scale out, not up
  • Get more out of databases without compromising scalability
  • Eliminate unnecessary redirects and redundant double-checking
  • Use caches and CDNs more aggressively, without unacceptable complexity
  • Design for fault tolerance, graceful failure, and easy rollback
  • Emphasize statelessness, and efficiently handle state when you must
  • Effectively utilize asynchronous communication
  • Learn from your own mistakes and others high-profile failures
  • Prioritize your actions to get the biggest bang for the buck

Scalability Rules Reviews

Praise for the First Edition of Scalability Rules

Once again, Abbott and Fisher provide a book that Ill be giving to our engineers. Its an essential read for anyone dealing with scaling an online business.

Chris Lalonde, GM of Data Stores, Rackspace

Abbott and Fisher again tackle the difficult problem of scalability in their unique and practical manner. Distilling the challenges of operating a fast-growing presence on the Internet into 50 easy-to-understand rules, the authors provide a modern cookbook of scalability recipes that guide the reader through the difficulties of fast growth.

Geoffrey Weber, VP, Internet Operations, Shutterfly

Abbott and Fisher have distilled years of wisdom into a set of cogent principles to avoid many nonobvious mistakes.

Jonathan Heiliger, VP, Technical Operations, Facebook

In The Art of Scalability, the AKF team taught us that scale is not just a technology challenge. Scale is obtained only through a combination of people, process, and technology. With Scalability Rules, Martin Abbott and Michael Fisher fill our scalability toolbox with easily implemented and time-tested rules that once applied will enable massive scale.

Jerome Labat, VP, Product Development IT, Intuit

When I joined Etsy, I partnered with Mike and Marty to hit the ground running in my new role, and it was one of the best investments of time I have made in my career. The indispensable advice from my experience working with Mike and Marty is fully captured here in this book. Whether youre taking on a role as a technology leader in a new company or you simply want to make great technology decisions, Scalability Rules will be the go-to resource on your bookshelf.

Chad Dickerson, CTO, Etsy

Scalability Rules provides an essential set of practical tools and concepts anyone can use when designing, upgrading, or inheriting a technology platform. Its very easy to focus on an immediate problem and overlook issues that will appear in the future. This book ensures strategic design principles are applied to everyday challenges.

Robert Guild, Director and Senior Architect, Financial Services

An insightful, practical guide to designing and building scalable systems. A must-read for both product building and operations teams, this book offers concise and crisp insights gained from years of practical experience of AKF principals. With the complexity of modern systems, scalability considerations should be an integral part of the architecture and implementation process. Scaling systems for hypergrowth requires an agile, iterative approach that is closely aligned with product features; this book shows you how.

Nanda Kishore, CTO, ShareThis

For organizations looking to scale technology, people, and processes rapidly or effectively, the twin pairing of Scalability Rules and The Art of Scalability is unbeatable. The rules-driven approach in Scalability Rules not only makes this an easy reference companion, but also allows organizations to tailor the Abbott and Fisher approach to their specific needs both immediately and in the future!

Jeremy Wright, CEO, BNOTIONS.ca, and Founder, b5media

About Martin L. Abbott

Martin L. Abbott is a founding partner of AKF Partners, a growth consulting firm focusing on meeting the needs of todays fast-paced and hyper-growth companies. Marty was formerly the COO of Quigo, an advertising technology startup acquired by AOL in 2007. Prior to Quigo, Marty spent nearly six years at eBay, most recently as SVP of Technology and CTO and member of the CEOs executive staff. Prior to eBay, Marty held domestic and international engineering, management, and executive positions at Gateway and Motorola. Marty has served on a number of boards of directors for public and private companies. He spent a number of years as both an active duty and reserve officer in the US Army. Marty has a BS in computer science from the United States Military Academy, an MS in computer engineering from the University of Florida, is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program, and has a Doctorate of Management from Case Western Reserve University.


Michael T. Fisher is a founding partner of AKF Partners, a growth consulting firm focusing on meeting the needs of todays fast-paced and hyper-growth companies. Prior to co-founding AKF Partners, Michael held many industry roles including the chief technology officer of Quigo, acquired by AOL in 2007, and the vice president of engineering & architecture for PayPal. He served as a pilot in the US Army. Michael received a PhD and MBA from Case Western Reserve Universitys Weatherhead School of Management, an MS in information systems from Hawaii-Pacific University, and a BS in computer science from the United States Military Academy (West Point). Michael is an adjunct professor in the Design & Innovation Department at Case Western Reserve Universitys Weatherhead School of Management.

Table of Contents

Preface xv

Acknowledgments xxi

About the Authors xxiii

Chapter 1: Reduce the Equation 1

Rule 1Dont Overengineer the Solution 3

Rule 2Design Scale into the Solution (D-I-D Process) 6

Rule 3Simplify the Solution Three Times Over 8

Rule 4Reduce DNS Lookups 10

Rule 5Reduce Objects Where Possible 12

Rule 6Use Homogeneous Networks 15

Summary 15

Notes 16

Chapter 2: Distribute Your Work 19

Rule 7Design to Clone or Replicate Things (X Axis) 22

Rule 8Design to Split Different Things (Y Axis) 24

Rule 9Design to Split Similar Things (Z Axis) 26

Summary 28

Notes 28

Chapter 3: Design to Scale Out Horizontally 29

Rule 10Design Your Solution to Scale Out, Not Just Up 31

Rule 11Use Commodity Systems (Goldfish Not Thoroughbreds) 33

Rule 12Scale Out Your Hosting Solution 35

Rule 13Design to Leverage the Cloud 40

Summary 42

Notes 42

Chapter 4: Use the Right Tools 43

Rule 14Use Databases Appropriately 47

Rule 15Firewalls, Firewalls Everywhere! 52

Rule 16Actively Use Log Files 55

Summary 58

Notes 58

Chapter 5: Get Out of Your Own Way 59

Rule 17Dont Check Your Work 61

Rule 18Stop Redirecting Traffic 64

Rule 19Relax Temporal Constraints 68

Summary 70

Notes 70

Chapter 6: Use Caching Aggressively 73

Rule 20Leverage Content Delivery Networks 75

Rule 21Use Expires Headers 77

Rule 22Cache Ajax Calls 80

Rule 23Leverage Page Caches 84

Rule 24Utilize Application Caches 86

Rule 25Make Use of Object Caches 88

Rule 26Put Object Caches on Their Own Tier 90

Summary 91

Notes 92

Chapter 7: Learn from Your Mistakes 93

Rule 27Learn Aggressively 95

Rule 28Dont Rely on QA to Find Mistakes 100

Rule 29Failing to Design for Rollback Is Designing for Failure 102

Summary 105

Notes 106

Chapter 8: Database Rules 107

Rule 30Remove Business Intelligence from Transaction Processing 109

Rule 31Be Aware of Costly Relationships 111

Rule 32Use the Right Type of Database Lock 114

Rule 33Pass on Using Multiphase Commits 116

Rule 34Try Not to Use Select for Update 118

Rule 35Dont Select Everything 120

Summary 121

Notes 122

Chapter 9: Design for Fault Tolerance and Graceful Failure 123

Rule 36Design Using Fault-Isolative Swim Lanes 124

Rule 37Never Trust Single Points of Failure 130

Rule 38Avoid Putting Systems in Series 132

Rule 39Ensure That You Can Wire On and Off Features 135

Summary 138

Chapter 10: Avoid or Distribute State 139

Rule 40Strive for Statelessness 140

Rule 41Maintain Sessions in the Browser When Possible 142

Rule 42Make Use of a Distributed Cache for States 144

Summary 146

Notes 146

Chapter 11: Asynchronous Communication and Message Buses 147

Rule 43Communicate Asynchronously as Much as Possible 149

Rule 44Ensure That Your Message Bus Can Scale 151

Rule 45Avoid Overcrowding Your Message Bus 154

Summary 157

Chapter 12: Miscellaneous Rules 159

Rule 46Be Wary of Scaling through Third Parties 161

Rule 47Purge, Archive, and Cost-Justify Storage 163

Rule 48Partition Inductive, Deductive, Batch, and User Interaction (OLTP) Workloads 166

Rule 49Design Your Application to Be Monitored 169

Rule 50Be Competent 172

Summary 174

Notes 174

Chapter 13: Rule Review and Prioritization 177

A Risk-Benefit Model for Evaluating Scalability Projects and Initiatives 177

50 Scalability Rules in Brief 180

A Benefit/Priority Ranking of the Scalability Rules 200

Summary 202

Index 205

Additional information

GOR013842268
9780134431604
013443160X
Scalability Rules: Principles for Scaling Web Sites by Martin L. Abbott
Used - Like New
Paperback
Pearson Education (US)
2016-09-28
256
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
The book has been read, but looks new. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket is included if applicable. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins

Customer Reviews - Scalability Rules