Art Versus Science
Our choice of the word art in the title of this book is a deliberate one. Art conjures up images of a fluid nature, whereas science seems much more structured and static. It is this image that we heavily rely on, as our experience has taught us that there is no single approach or way to guarantee an appropriate level of scale within a platform, organization, or process. A successful approach to scaling must be crafted around the ecosystem created by the intersection of the current technology platform, the characteristics of the organization, and the maturity and appropriateness of the existing processes. This book focuses on providing skills and teaching approaches that, if employed properly, will help solve nearly any scalability or availability problem.
This is not to say that we don’t advocate the application of the scientific method in nearly any approach, because we absolutely do. Art here is a nod to the notion that you simply cannot take a “one size fits all” approach to any potential system and expect to meet with success.