We’ve completed the first draft of our new book “Scalability Rules – 50 Principles For Scaling Web Sites” and wanted to share the table of contents with everyone. We have a terrific team of technical editors who are reviewing every rule in detail but would also like to offer this opportunity to anyone else so inclined. Our publisher, Addison-Wesley Professional, has posted the draft versions of Chapters 1-5 (Rules 1-19) on line at Safari Rough Cuts and should have a couple more chapters available soon. If you’re interested in a sneak preview or would like to provide feedback, sign up and take a look. Below is the book’s table of contents.

Chapter 1 – Reduce the Equation

• Rule 1 Don’t Over Engineer The Solution
• Rule 2 Design Scale Into the Solution (D-I-D Process)
• Rule 3 Simplify the Solution 3 Times Over
• Rule 4 Reduce DNS Lookups
• Rule 5 Reduce Objects Where Possible
• Rule 6 Use Homogenous Networks

Chapter 2 – Distribute Your Work

• Rule 7 Design to Split Reads and Writes (X axis)
• Rule 8 Design to Split Different Things (Y axis)
• Rule 9 Design to Split Similar Things   (Z axis)

Chapter 3 – Design to Scale Out Horizontally

• Rule 10 Design Your Solution to Scale Out – Not Just Up
• Rule 11 Use Commodity Systems (Goldfish not Thoroughbreds)
• Rule 12 Scale Out Your Data Centers
• Rule 13 Design to Leverage the Cloud

Chapter 4 – Use The Right Tools

• Rule 14 Use Databases Appropriately
• Rule 15 Firewalls, Firewalls, Everywhere!
• Rule 16 Actively Use Log Files

Chapter 5 – Don’t Duplicate Your Work (Nov 30th)

• Rule 17 Don’t Check Your Work
• Rule 18 Stop Redirecting Traffic
• Rule 19 Relax Temporal Constraints

Chapter 6 – Use Caching Aggressively

• Rule 20 Leverage CDNs
• Rule 21 Use Expires Headers
• Rule 22 Cache Ajax Calls
• Rule 23 Leverage Page Caches
• Rule 24 Utilize Application Caches
• Rule 25 Make Use of Object Caches
• Rule 26 Put Object Caches on Their Own “Tier”

Chapter 7 – Learn From Your Mistakes

• Rule 27 Learn Aggressively
• Rule 28 Don’t Rely on QA to Find Mistakes
• Rule 29 Failing to Design for Rollback Is Designing to Fail
• Rule 30 Discuss and Learn from Failures

Chapter 8 – Database Rules

• Rule 31 Be Aware of Costly Relationships
• Rule 32 Use the Right Type of Database Locks
• Rule 33 Pass on Using Multi-phase Commits
• Rule 34 Try Not to Use “Select For Update”
• Rule 35 Don’t Select Everything

Chapter 9 – Design for Fault Tolerance and Graceful Failure

• Rule 36 Design Using Fault Isolative “Swim Lanes”
• Rule 37 Never Trust Single Points of Failure
• Rule 38 Avoid Putting Systems in Series
• Rule 39 Ensure You Can Wire On and Off Functions

Chapter 10 – Avoid or Distribute State

• Rule 40 Strive For Statelessness
• Rule 41 Maintain Sessions in the Browser When Possible
• Rule 42 Make Use of a Distributed Cache For States

Chapter 11 – Asynchronous Communication and Message Buses

• Rule 43 Communicate Asynchronously As Much As Possible
• Rule 44 Ensure Your Message Bus Can Scale
• Rule 45 Avoid Overcrowding Your Message Bus

Chapter 12 – Miscellaneous Rules

• Rule 46 Be Wary of Scaling Through 3rd Parties
• Rule 47 Purge, Archive, and Cost-justify Storage
• Rule 48 Remove Business Intelligence from Transaction Processing
• Rule 49 Design Your Application to Be Monitored

Chapter 13 – Rule Review and Prioritization