Understanding Distributed Systems

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Building large-scale distributed systems is challenging, not due to a lack of information, but because resources are scattered across various platforms. While there is plenty of theoretical and practical material available, much of it exists at the extremes, leaving a gap in the middle. This book aims to bridge that gap by consolidating essential theoretical and practical concepts, saving you the time of piecing everything together. It offers a comprehensive guide to the fundamentals of large-scale distributed systems, providing sufficient details and references for deeper exploration. Based on personal experience in developing systems that handle millions of requests per second and billions of devices, this guide is tailored for developers working on backend web or mobile applications. Familiarity with the network stack, data consistency models, scalability, reliability patterns, and observability best practices is crucial for building effective distributed applications. While it's possible to create applications with minimal knowledge, doing so often results in time-consuming debugging and re-architecting. However, seasoned experts in designing highly available and fault-tolerant applications may find this book less suitable, as it emphasizes breadth over depth. The second edition is a complete rewrite, incorporating new topics and revising the content of the first edition.