Scalability Rules
Principles for Scaling Web Sites
2nd Edition
Published on 28. September 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-0-13-443160-4 (ISBN)
Description
Fully updated! Fifty Powerful, Easy-to-Use Rules for Supporting Hyper Growth
"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
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, 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
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"
"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
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, 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
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"
Reviews / Votes
Praise for the First Edition of Scalability Rules"Once again, Abbott and Fisher provide a book that I'll be giving to our engineers. It's 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 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
"Scalability Rules provides an essential set of practical tools and concepts anyone can use when designing, upgrading, or inheriting a technology platform. It's 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
More details
Other editions
Previous edition
Book
05/2011
Addison Wesley
€30.94
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Persons
Martin L. Abbott is a founding partner of AKF Partners, a growth consulting firm focusing on meeting the needs of today's 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 CEO's 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 today's 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 University's 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 University's Weatherhead School of Management.
Michael T. Fisher is a founding partner of AKF Partners, a growth consulting firm focusing on meeting the needs of today's 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 University's 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 University's Weatherhead School of Management.
Content
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
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