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Fully updated! Fifty Powerful, Easy-to-Use Rules for Supporting Hyper Growth
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.“Whether you’re 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
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, you’ll find practical risk/benefit guidance for setting priorities, translating plans into action, and gaining maximum scalability at minimum cost.
You’ll learn how to
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 2 and the Index.)
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xxi
About the Authors xxiii
Chapter 1: Reduce the Equation 1
Rule 1—Don’t Overengineer the Solution 3
Rule 2—Design Scale into the Solution (D-I-D Process) 6
Rule 3—Simplify the Solution Three Times Over 8
Rule 4—Reduce DNS Lookups 10
Rule 5—Reduce Objects Where Possible 12
Rule 6—Use Homogeneous Networks 15
Summary 15
Notes 16
Chapter 2: Distribute Your Work 19
Rule 7—Design to Clone or Replicate Things (X Axis) 22
Rule 8—Design to Split Different Things (Y Axis) 24
Rule 9—Design to Split Similar Things (Z Axis) 26
Summary 28
Notes 28
Chapter 3: Design to Scale Out Horizontally 29
Rule 10—Design Your Solution to Scale Out, Not Just Up 31
Rule 11—Use Commodity Systems (Goldfish Not Thoroughbreds) 33
Rule 12—Scale Out Your Hosting Solution 35
Rule 13—Design to Leverage the Cloud 40
Summary 42
Notes 42
Chapter 4: Use the Right Tools 43
Rule 14—Use Databases Appropriately 47
Rule 15—Firewalls, Firewalls Everywhere! 52
Rule 16—Actively Use Log Files 55
Summary 58
Notes 58
Chapter 5: Get Out of Your Own Way 59
Rule 17—Don’t Check Your Work 61
Rule 18—Stop Redirecting Traffic 64
Rule 19—Relax Temporal Constraints 68
Summary 70
Notes 70
Chapter 6: Use Caching Aggressively 73
Rule 20—Leverage Content Delivery Networks 75
Rule 21—Use Expires Headers 77
Rule 22—Cache Ajax Calls 80
Rule 23—Leverage Page Caches 84
Rule 24—Utilize Application Caches 86
Rule 25—Make Use of Object Caches 88
Rule 26—Put Object Caches on Their Own “Tier” 90
Summary 91
Notes 92
Chapter 7: Learn from Your Mistakes 93
Rule 27—Learn Aggressively 95
Rule 28—Don’t Rely on QA to Find Mistakes 100
Rule 29—Failing to Design for Rollback Is Designing for Failure 102
Summary 105
Notes 106
Chapter 8: Database Rules 107
Rule 30—Remove Business Intelligence from Transaction Processing 109
Rule 31—Be Aware of Costly Relationships 111
Rule 32—Use the Right Type of Database Lock 114
Rule 33—Pass on Using Multiphase Commits 116
Rule 34—Try Not to Use Select for Update 118
Rule 35—Don’t Select Everything 120
Summary 121
Notes 122
Chapter 9: Design for Fault Tolerance and Graceful Failure 123
Rule 36—Design Using Fault-Isolative “Swim Lanes” 124
Rule 37—Never Trust Single Points of Failure 130
Rule 38—Avoid Putting Systems in Series 132
Rule 39—Ensure That You Can Wire On and Off Features 135
Summary 138
Chapter 10: Avoid or Distribute State 139
Rule 40—Strive for Statelessness 140
Rule 41—Maintain Sessions in the Browser When Possible 142
Rule 42—Make Use of a Distributed Cache for States 144
Summary 146
Notes 146
Chapter 11: Asynchronous Communication and Message Buses 147
Rule 43—Communicate Asynchronously as Much as Possible 149
Rule 44—Ensure That Your Message Bus Can Scale 151
Rule 45—Avoid Overcrowding Your Message Bus 154
Summary 157
Chapter 12: Miscellaneous Rules 159
Rule 46—Be Wary of Scaling through Third Parties 161
Rule 47—Purge, Archive, and Cost-Justify Storage 163
Rule 48—Partition Inductive, Deductive, Batch, and User Interaction (OLTP) Workloads 166
Rule 49—Design Your Application to Be Monitored 169
Rule 50—Be 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