Job & Edu

Building Scalable Web Sites: Building, Scaling, and Optimizing the Next Generation of Web Applications

From O'Reilly Media

Author : Cal Henderson
Binding : Paperback
DeweyDecimalNumber : 005.72
EAN : 9780596102357
Edition : 1
ISBN : 0596102356
Label : O'Reilly Media
Manufacturer : O'Reilly Media
NumberOfPages : 352
ProductTypeName : ABIS_BOOK
PublicationDate : 2006-05-16
Publisher : O'Reilly Media
Similar Products

Customer Reviews

Rating:
Summary: More hardware than software
Comment: When I purchased this book I was looking for a resource that would give me some insights into architecting web applications, from the software side. While an interesting read and useful, it was mostly about the hardware scaling: servers and network. The software tips really boil down to 'once you have the hardware and network configuration figured out, write your application to use that', which is rather on the nose.

I was looking for a book with more wisdom on the software development side and was disappointed that it didn't really focus much on that part of building web sites. Despite it not being what I was looking for in particular, I'm giving it four stars because the information and presentation in the book were very useful.
Rating:
Summary: covers a lot of important things, just left out building web sites
Comment: this book covers topics like version control software and network architecture, but it leaves out the actual building part. I was hoping this book would cover some examples of software architecture and how/why it's scalable.

Although this book touches on the mvc methodology, there is no connections made to how it makes an application scalable.

I feel a little cheated to be honest
Rating:
Summary: Good, overwhelming stuff
Comment: The book is getting a little dated, but most of what's in here still makes sense. I actually put it away after reading 50% of it because it keeps making me feel stressed about all the things I haven't done yet with my own web application. There really is a lot of truth to the Getting Real approach of not worrying about scaling before you actually need to.
I would have loved an abbreviated version of this book which might have told me the few things that are really worthwhile to start doing right from the beginning. Now I am mostly overwhelmed and may actually be more likely to ignore every concern listed in this book until just after it's too late.
Rating:
Summary: Very Technical - Little Fluff Here
Comment: Typically when reading a technology book they fall into two categories.
They are over your head or too general. This book probably falls into the first category. I would imagine for the right techie this book would have so many great code examples they would love it. Had I bought this in the store, and not online, the sheer volume of code examples would have scared me away.

Not to worry, this book is great when paired with John Allspaw's "Art of Capacity Planning" John's book is 150 pages while this one is over 300, but they are a dense 300. If you want High Level go with Allspaw if you want Low Level go with Henderson. Also an FYI do not to copy all that code just use the 45 day trial to Safari to get access to the whole book online. This would allow you can download every word in the book, which is very slick.

For me, I did like the comparison in the opening chapter about how a web architect has to remodel a house while people are still living in it. Further along in the book Chapter 9 is worthwhile for the majority of readers even at a high level. Especially the 3 rules for scalability.

A scalable system has three simple characteristics:

They system can accommodate increased usage
The system can accommodate an increased data set
The system is maintainable

Communication is all about knowing your audience, and clearly I wasn't at a technical level for this book, but I still got a few great examples.
Rating:
Summary: nice book
Comment: I received this book in three days, which was a fast delivery. I am still working on this book, but I must say I like this book.