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The Art of Scalability: Scalable Web Architecture, Processes, and Organizations for the Modern Enterprise
A Comprehensive, Proven Approach to IT Scalability from Two Veteran Software, Technology, and Business Executives In The Art of Scalability, AKF Partners cofounders Martin L. Abbott and Michael T. Fisher cover everything IT and business leaders must know to build technology infrastructures that can scale smoothly to meet any business requirement. Drawing on their unparalleled experience managing some of the world’s highest-transaction-volume Web sites, the authors provide detailed models and best-practice approaches available in no other book. Unlike previous books on scalability, The Art of Scalability doesn’t limit its coverage to technology. Writing for both technical and nontechnical decision-makers, this book covers everything that impacts scalability, including architecture, processes, people, and organizations. Throughout, the authors address a broad spectrum of real-world challenges, from performance testing to IT governance. Using their tools and guidance, organizations can systematically overcome obstacles to scalability and achieve unprecedented levels of technical and business performance. Coverage includes
559 pages, Paperback
First published November 24, 2009
226 people are currently reading
1981 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 17, 2012
There is a huge amount of information in this book. It's broadly broken down into scalability of people, process, and technology, with a very clear and structured approach all the way through. Each section taught me far more than I expected, given that I live and breath this stuff at work every day (helping grow Lookout from 1000 to 30+ million users and 6 to 160 employees in the last 3.5 years). This book isn't intended to provide all the details about every (or even any) subject it talks about, but it provides a framework for making sure you are thinking about everything you need to think about and aren't caught unawares. I would've loved more links to where to read more, but those would probably tend to go out of date quickly in any case and this book is clearly designed to try and remain relevant over time.
The people section focuses on organizational structure, leadership, management, and communication. I was greatly amused by the number of things I read about in this book shortly before we started talking about them within the company (it took me ~5 months to read this book, since it's pretty dense and I kept putting it down to read other stuff). I would've loved a discussion around onboarding and culture in the book, since in any high-growth company those become important issues very quickly.
The process section was great. It covers a wide range of types of processes, including incident response, change management, architectural design and review, risk analysis and management, and deployment issues. Some of those may not sound like processes at first, but they provide a way of thinking about them that really makes sense (to me at least). Their 12 architectural principles were great -- I've added them to my crib sheet for things to keep in mind when I design. One minor nit, I felt like their chapter on controlling change in production environments ignored the growth and potential of tools like Chef and Puppet for ensuring that there are never manual tweaks on production servers.
The technology section dives into more depth around a few of the architectural principles laid out in the prior section. It talks a lot about how to design a system such that it can grown smoothly over time and adapt to growth along unexpected axes. Obviously a lot of this is more abstract, since the details are very dependent upon individual circumstances, but they provide some good approaches to thinking about the issues involved.
Overall a highly recommended book for anyone working in a high growth tech company.
The people section focuses on organizational structure, leadership, management, and communication. I was greatly amused by the number of things I read about in this book shortly before we started talking about them within the company (it took me ~5 months to read this book, since it's pretty dense and I kept putting it down to read other stuff). I would've loved a discussion around onboarding and culture in the book, since in any high-growth company those become important issues very quickly.
The process section was great. It covers a wide range of types of processes, including incident response, change management, architectural design and review, risk analysis and management, and deployment issues. Some of those may not sound like processes at first, but they provide a way of thinking about them that really makes sense (to me at least). Their 12 architectural principles were great -- I've added them to my crib sheet for things to keep in mind when I design. One minor nit, I felt like their chapter on controlling change in production environments ignored the growth and potential of tools like Chef and Puppet for ensuring that there are never manual tweaks on production servers.
The technology section dives into more depth around a few of the architectural principles laid out in the prior section. It talks a lot about how to design a system such that it can grown smoothly over time and adapt to growth along unexpected axes. Obviously a lot of this is more abstract, since the details are very dependent upon individual circumstances, but they provide some good approaches to thinking about the issues involved.
Overall a highly recommended book for anyone working in a high growth tech company.
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November 26, 2020Основательный труд, рассматривающий явление масштабирования с разных сторон: люди, процессы, архитектура, железо и прочее. Рекомендую строителям больших информационных систем.
May 25, 2021
Actually the first parts about how to scale the company and the teams was more interesting that the rest and I have to admit I had to fight a bit to get through it. One of my originals hooks to read this book was the scaling cube, but after reading it I still don't know how to use it.
If I could rate the book in parts I'd give the first parts a solid five and the last parts a three.
If I could rate the book in parts I'd give the first parts a solid five and the last parts a three.
September 9, 2011
I selected this book because of its content about organizations and processes on technology based companies. I was hoping to find answers and solutions to some issues on technical projects, which didn't have good technical explanations and I must admit that many times, while reading this book, I was catching myself saying 'I wish I read this book earlier'. Great book. I recommend it to every software engineer who wants to know not only how to write some code, but also, how to interact with different teams across the whole organization.
October 7, 2018
An extremely useful book that covers so much more about scaling than I thought it would and at a great level of detail. From structuring the company to the process to the tech, and with everything in between, this book is a great resource to learn more about scaling products and maintaining them once live.
December 31, 2019
Helps with determining costs associated with redundancy and scale. Always better to learn from others mistakes where bottlenecks exist at higher traffic volumes so you can safeguard yourself in the planning phase. Learned how to split databases for scale in a straight ahead approach. Loaded with real world examples.
March 16, 2018
I would not read this book in isolation of your work. Useful when you have specific use cases that you need to evaluate or problem to fix. On my side I used it for technical due diligence for large investment funds.
February 24, 2020
This book changed the way that I think about managing my team. The phrase "management is measurement" is repeated several times throughout, and it has rung true for my experience so far. I think actively growing teams will get the most use out of this book, but the themes are relevant for everyone.
August 31, 2020
This book has wide and deep information and is a great manual for thinking about systems (people and tech) at scale. It feels a bit outdated at times and sufferes a bit from overselling the basics, but regardless is as comprehensive a reference as I've encountered.
on-hold
February 25, 2023Made it to 46%, at the start of Ch21. I started this read at a time when I felt insecure about my architecture knowledge, and now there are more relevant books I could be picking up when the urge strikes me. Moving to unfinished.
July 16, 2023
This book has a wealth of information, authored by industry veterans, you will deep dive into the “art” of scaling systems and organizations, along with interesting real-world references. Highly recommended
February 21, 2019
This took me a long time to get through, but it was absolutely worth it. The material is a little out of date being 9 years old. However, this is a must read for anyone doing software architecture.
Want to read
October 12, 2019mentioned in UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook (4th edition)
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October 20, 2019Solid but a bit long
Covers all aspects of scale, which is unique. Last chapters repeat points too much and drag a little. Still highly recommended.
Covers all aspects of scale, which is unique. Last chapters repeat points too much and drag a little. Still highly recommended.
November 2, 2019
A "wow" book to understand what it really means to scale.
May 12, 2021
Way too enterprise, nevertheless the book has good material on how to manage infrastructure components, teams and plan for scalability.
January 15, 2022
For me as a neophyte in the area of cloud systems, this introduces some of the issues involved, in terms of scaling up and down resources, depending on needs.
May 28, 2017
Gute Einführung der AKF in die technische und betriebsorganisatorische Realisierung von Verfüg- und Skalierbarkeitszielen. Abbotts Darstellung der verschiedenen Dimensionen einer Scaling-Lösung an den Achsen eines Würfels ist sehr elegant: Beim "Scale Cube" liefern Maschinen auf der X-Achse Redundanz, auf der Y-Achse vertikal partitionierte Daten (zB. Columns/Services) und auf der Z-Achse horizontal partit. Daten (Shards)
February 21, 2016
Excellent book for software architects or engineering directors/managers. While I expected a lot of technical stuff I was positively surprised with part dedicated to organizational structures and processes. It helped me to see how the technological part is connected with how a company works.
The architecture part is good too. It is based on author's experiences and it is realistic. It is not just a description of an ideal world but there is an understanding that there are often many tradeoffs and people have to invest in areas where it is most important.
The architecture part is good too. It is based on author's experiences and it is realistic. It is not just a description of an ideal world but there is an understanding that there are often many tradeoffs and people have to invest in areas where it is most important.
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July 10, 2016Enterprise is a keyword of the book title. The book go over a lot of topics in the modern company management. You will not find one big idea of the book, more like many small ideas in each chapter.
Which is down side for me as it is hard to go through the book where chapters have little relations to each other.
Which is down side for me as it is hard to go through the book where chapters have little relations to each other.
January 5, 2016
The book describes about scalability of the systems and the methods used to scale. What I like about it, that it has examples shown.
However, I have not thought that it would also include scalability of organizations.
However, I have not thought that it would also include scalability of organizations.
August 23, 2015
This book talks about other things than Scalability!
October 24, 2010
Very good book for those who are interested in scalability in the enterprise.
January 17, 2017
An fantastic read for anyone dealing with scalabilty
July 13, 2016
very good book about origination and scalable architecture
November 3, 2015
A must for anyone working with web services and / or websites at scale.
March 4, 2017
impressive book...insight view of product, organization from real example.
April 17, 2017
A must read for any technology leader. I love this book. I know I will reference it in the future again and again.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews