Scalability Rules: Principles for Scaling Web Sites - Softcover

Abbott, Martin; Fisher, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 013443160X ISBN 13: 9780134431604

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2016

Synopsis

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”

About this title

About the Author

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.

Review

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 013443160X
• ISBN 13: 9780134431604
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 256