The Art of Scalability ― Scalable Web Architecture, Processes, and Organizations for the Modern Enterprise

“Many books address how to correct failing product architectures or problematic processes, both of which are symptoms of an unspoken problem. This book not only covers those symptoms, but addresses their underlying cause—the way in which we manage, lead, organize, and staff our teams.”

—Jeremy King, chief technology officer and senior vice president, global eCommerce at Walmart.com

The Comprehensive, Proven Approach to IT Scalability—Updated with New Strategies, Technologies, and Case Studies

In The Art of Scalability, Second Edition, leading scalability consultants Martin L. Abbott and Michael T. Fisher cover everything you need to know to smoothly scale products and services for any requirement. This extensively revised edition reflects new technologies, strategies, and lessons, as well as new case studies from the authors’ pioneering consulting practice, AKF Partners.

Writing for technical and nontechnical decision-makers, Abbott and Fisher cover everything that impacts scalability, including architecture, process, people, organization, and technology. Their insights and recommendations reflect more than thirty years of experience at companies ranging from eBay to Visa, and Salesforce.com to Apple.

You’ll find updated strategies for structuring organizations to maximize agility and scalability, as well as new insights into the cloud (IaaS/PaaS) transition, NoSQL, DevOps, business metrics, and more. Using this guide’s tools and advice, you can systematically clear away obstacles to scalability—and achieve unprecedented IT and business performance.

Coverage includes

• Why scalability problems start with organizations and people, not technology, and what to do about it
• Actionable lessons from real successes and failures
• Staffing, structuring, and leading the agile, scalable organization
• Scaling processes for hyper-growth environments
• Architecting scalability: proprietary models for clarifying needs and making choices—including 15 key success principles
• Emerging technologies and challenges: data cost, datacenter planning, cloud evolution, and customer-aligned monitoring
• Measuring availability, capacity, load, and performance

Martin L. Abbott is a founding partner at the growth and scalability advisory firm AKF Partners. He was formerly Chief Operations Officer of Quigo, an advertising technology startup sold to AOL, where he was responsible for product strategy, product management, technology development, and client services. Marty spent nearly six years at eBay, most recently as Senior Vice President of technology and Chief Technology Officer and member of the executive staff. Prior to eBay, Marty held domestic and international engineering, management, and executive positions at Gateway and Motorola. Marty has served on the boards of directors of several private and public companies. Marty has a B.S. in computer science from the United States Military Academy, an M.S. in computer engineering from the University of Florida, is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program, and has a Doctor of Management from Case Western Reserve University.

Michael T. Fisher is a founding partner at the growth and scalability advisory firm AKF Partners. Prior to co-founding AKF Partners, Michael was the Chief Technology Officer of Quigo, a startup Internet advertising company that was acquired by AOL in 2007. Prior to Quigo, Michael served as Vice President, Engineering & Architecture for PayPal, Inc., an eBay company. Prior to joining PayPal, Michael spent seven years at General Electric helping to develop the company’s technology strategy and was a Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Michael served six years as a Captain and pilot in the U.S. Army. Michael received a Ph.D. and MBA from Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management, an M.S. in Information Systems from Hawaii-Pacific University, and a B.S. in Computer Science from the United States Military Academy (West Point). Michael is an Adjunct Professor in the Design & Innovation Department at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management.