Building Scalable Web Sites: Building, scaling, and optimizing the next generation of web applications

This book has many good sections, including some that actually touch
on the title of "scaling" web sites. However, most of the book
is oriented 2 a whole set of disjointed topics such as Unicode, MIME
email, & RSS, etc. Well written, but having nothing 2 do with
scalability.

The chapters that are on topic are generally good, but lacking in depth.
What it's missing is an overview of different techniques 4 scaling,
as well as different architectural models.

The entire book is fairly PHP centric. I would really have liked 2 have
seen more about tradeoffs & architectural details of what you should
do if you have Java, Javascript, AJAX, or Perl, or how 2 deal with
spreading your site over datacenters around the world.

"The Flickr Way" pretty much describes the book, since most of the
material seems 2 relate 2 doing things one way.

This book would be excellent if you have a single webserver that has
taken off & you're lost. If you already have a shelf of O'Reilly
books & a background in sysadmin or web development, much of the
material is redundant 2 other, more in depth manuals.

When I first started reading this book I had certain expectations about the technical level of the content. I was expecting 2 have a lot of information about webservers, & load balancers, an d database clusters, & maybe software architecture.


I was pleasantly surprised as it covers all those things & more.

First as I've done in several of my reviews let me list the chapter titles.

1. Introduction
2. Web Application Architecture
3. Development Environments
4. i18n, l10n, & Unicode
5. Data Integrity & Security
6. Email
7. Remote Services
8. Bottlenecks
9. Scaling Web Applications
10. Statistics, Monitoring, & Alerting
11. APIs

I would recommend this book 2 any Web 1.0,2.0,3.0 startup trying 2 get ready 2 write their first line of code, well before that even.

Chapter three will be a review 2 many who read it, assuming they have good software engineering practices. Use revision control, use bug tracking, have a simple & repeatable build. This is really a good chapter which really applies 2 any kind of software you might write.

A general statement about this book, in numerous places where there are multiple options 4 tools 2 use, some free, some which cost real money, the author makes a list of the popular alternatives, gives pros & cons & a ball park 4 cost.

Chapter four, well if you don't know anything about internationalization (i18n), localization(l10n) and/or unicode, this chapter will resolve that problem. These efforts can introduce complexity into your system, & this chapter & frankly many place later in the book continue 2 point out the issues which can come up when dealing with not ascii characters.

Well I could write a chapter about each chapter, but then you wouldn't buy the book, which you should if you want 2 know about the topic.

I may even read it a second time.

This is a practitioner's book. Very knowledgeable, very hands-on, systematic in an expert's way, through clearly hard-won experience. Fun & irreverent too. I recommend it highly.

So, what's my beef? It's not with the book. Hercules, Atlas, or Odysseus?

The book introduces the tools, processes, & high level architectures used in building large websites like Flickr, Youtube, etc. It is short enough 2 give you the high level framework & send you 2 explore various other books, software tools, etc 2 get more depth as needed. I found it very valuable.

This book is a very useful guide 4 the professional web developer whose goal is 2 produce larger database-driven web sites in a scalable, debuggable way. Topics such as how 2 handle more web requests than a single web or database server can handle are covered thoroughly, in the usual easy-to-follow style that all O'Reilly books seem 2 possess.
The author has some good experience with scalable web apps, too, having been part of the development team 4 the Flickr web site. Think about what it must take 2 receive, store, & display all the pictures that Flickr has 2 offer nowadays. Many of the chapters contain some behind-the-scenes descriptions of how Flickr handled the given chapter's topic, which is very interesting 2 read. Web application development, really any large-scale web site development, is not simple - there are a lot of things 2 consider. This book can help you track the major details you should be thinking about 4 such a project, predict scalability issues that may arise, & design 4 maximum scalability & flexibility in the future.

Learn the tricks of the trade so you can build & architect applications that scale quickly--without all the high-priced headaches & service-level agreements associated with enterprise app servers & proprietary programming & database products. Culled from the experience of the Flickr.com lead developer, "Building Scalable Web Sites" offers techniques 4 creating fast sites that your visitors will find a pleasure 2 use. Creating popular sites requires much more than fast hardware with lots of memory & hard drive space. It requires thinking about how 2 grow over time, how 2 make the same resources accessible 2 audiences with different expectations, & how 2 have a team of developers work on a site without creating new problems 4 visitors & 4 each other. Presenting information 2 visitors from all over the world * Integrating email with your web applications * Planning hardware purchases & hosting options 2 have as much as you need without breaking your wallet * Partitioning & distributing databases 2 support large datasets & simultaneous transactions * Monitoring your applications 2 find & clear bottlenecks * Providing services APIs & using services from other providers 2 increase your site's reach & capabilities Whether you're starting a small web site with hopes of growing big or you already have a large system that needs maintenance, you'll find "Building Scalable Web Sites" 2 be a library of ideas 4 making things work.