Blueprints for High Availability: Designing Resilient Distributed Systems

Customer Reviews

As a system architect with a programming background facing the task of designing a simple highly reliable system this provided an excellent perspective on the different issues and technologies. It left me well prepared to then delve into the product literature of specific products that addressed the issues relevant to the project.

I believe this would also be an excellent book for IT managers who are looking at commissioning a "high availability" system, whether from an external software integrator or an internal company IT department. In particular, it describes what is easily achievable, what is achievable only at great expense, and what is simply not doable. It also emphasises the roles and responsibilities of people involved in ongoing support of HA systems; this book clearly describes how creating such a system is not the end but the start of providing reliable services.

The reading will be challenging for those of non-technical background, but the book keeps its focus on why you would use each technology rather than simply how each is applied, which makes it relevant to a wide range of readers. It should also ensure that this book remains useful even as technologies change.

What this book does not do is provide a formula for setting up a system. It's a great first step, though.

In addition the writing is clear, structure and flow are good and mistakes are few. Not the lightest of reads, but then again this is a serious topic about systems worth serious money. And at 550-odd pages of dense reading material, this book is well worth investing in.

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