I’ve read two really good books on scaling large-scale web applications lately: Building Scalable Websites by Cal Henderson and Scalable Internet Architectures by Theo Schlossnagle. (Original titles, eh?) Both dispel common myths and misconceptions about scaling. While neither maps directly to the approaches we’re taking at Automattic, they’re both must-read for developers approaching or past the million/day pageview mark. I only wish I had more time to discuss my thoughts on the various concepts in the books—particularly Cal’s.
So if I was only going to read one of them, which would you recommend?
Probably Cal’s, because it deals with more application-level things.
Yeah i just finished cals book last week. Its a great read, and it not one of those ‘cookbook’ type of books. I got it thinking it was gonna be a step by step kind of thing, but really what it does is it forces you to really identify your problems with your site and then he talk about ways you can make some changes, avoid some common pitfalls, and make your site run better. He uses php as the main language, but there are not very many code snippets, and the ones that are there really only serve the purpose of explaining a concept. I found his section on APIs super helpful, probably worth the price of the book for me.
It sounds like the two books compliment each other, though I have only read the first part of Cal’s. Cal, a friend, recently read Scalable Internet Architectures and enjoyed it because it is more cookbook in some areas. There are no silver bullets.
You should read Theo’s cause he is funnier. That is very cool that you found Theo’s book useful. You should come by ApacheCon sometime and hear him speak, or have a beer with him at least.