Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)

The key to client/server computing.

Transaction processing techniques are deeply ingrained in the fields of
databases and operating systems and are used to monitor, control and update
information in modern computer systems. This book will show you how large,
distributed, heterogeneous computer systems can be made to work reliably.
Using transactions as a unifying conceptual framework, the authors show how
to build high performance distributed systems and high availability
applications with finite budgets and risk.

The authors provide detailed explanations of why various problems occur as
well as practical, usable techniques for their solution. Throughout the book,
examples and techniques are drawn from the most successful commercial and
research systems. Extensive use of compilable C code fragments demonstrates
the many transaction processing algorithms presented in the book. The book
will be valuable to anyone interested in implementing distributed systems
or client/server architectures.

Jim Gray, Microsoft Research and Andreas Reuter, University of Stuttgart