Product Description

As a developer, you are aware of the increasing concern amongst developers and site architects that websites be able to handle the vast number of visitors that flood the Internet on a daily basis. Scalable Internet Architecture addresses these concerns by teaching you both good and bad design methodologies for building new sites and how to scale existing websites to robust, high-availability websites. Primarily example-based, the book discusses major topics in web architectural design, presenting existing solutions and how they work. Technology budget tight? This book will work for you, too, as it introduces new and innovative concepts to solving traditionally expensive problems without a large technology budget. Using open source and proprietary examples, you will be engaged in best practice design methodologies for building new sites, as well as appropriately scaling both growing and shrinking sites. Website development help has arrived in the form of Scalable Internet Architecture.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55431 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

About the Author

Theo Schlossnagle is a principal at OmniTI Computer Consulting, where he provides

expert consulting services related to scalable internet architectures, database replication,

and email infrastructure. He is the creator of the Backhand Project and the Ecelerity

MTA, and spends most of his time solving the scalability problems that arise in

high-performance and highly distributed systems.

Customer Reviews

The previous reviews don't really do it justice
This is a fantastic book about scalable systems. If you want specifics, he presents opensource and cost effective solutions that can be implemented, but in my opinion that isn't the real value of the book.

The real value is the way he leads you through the thought processess that need to occur as you plan for releasing and using such a system. I really like some of the stuff that is emphasized and has caused me to realize that I had gaps in my knowledge. Gaps like better release planning, and actual cost of such a system, especially as it grows, or shrinks.

I've been extremely happy with this purchase.

I could not put this book down
I picked up this book the other day on the recommendation of a friend, and I can't put it down. I like it because:

* its small (the number of pages 225, the print, the format, the thickness) , but its pithy. Every page has useful stuff.
* the real world experience (pain!) just oozes out of this book. So many times while reading I thought: "Oh yes ... hadn't thought of that."
* its not stridently opensource, nonetheless ends up most there anyway - but only after addressing commercial products and their role
* its business focused, not geek focused - while still being incredibly geeky

Most of all its just really well written and edited. I've caught a couple of minor typos, but nothing that interfered with reading or enjoying the book.

In a world of many great technical books, and insufficient time to read them, its hard to know which ones are worth the effort. This one definitely is.

Unique and realistic perspective on Scalability and HA
This is the type of technical book that comes alone all to infrequently. Instead of giving "cookbook" recipes that are inapplicable to the majority of real-world environment, this book discusses how to apply techniques (not recipes) to increase the flexibility (and hence scalability) of your infrastructure. This author obviously has in-depth knowledge of real-work production environments and the unnecessary risks that companies expose their infrastructures to. For example, from my own experience it is pitiful how rampant the concept of HA is confused with load balancing! I have seen CIOs of Fortune 500 companies tout their "risk-free" scalable environment implemented with load balancing. When I explain to them that HA has nothing to do with load balancing, and to insure a high availability infrastructure they need to revamp their architecture, they look at me suspiciously as if I'm trying to squeeze money out of them. When I ask to speak to the Director of Operations and pointedly ask how HA is implemented, and get a response alone the lines of "we have redundant load balancers fronting redundant servers" I know I'm dealing with yet another instance of a gross misunderstanding of HA. When I point out the multiple single points of failure, I'm treated as an adversary intent on discrediting the technical staff! This book reveals the fallacy of such an approach.

The author also discusses elements of a robust HA environment that others book only touch on if not completely ignore. For example, revision control and business continuity among other often overlooked processes. All in all an interesting read that will open your eyes to what is truly a misunderstood topic.

The books handling of scalability, including a discussion of "scaling-down" (or scaling back), is first rate as well.