Art of Scalability, The

Martin L. Abbott is a founding partner at the growth and scalability advisory firm AKF Partners. He was formerly chief operations officer at 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, chief technology officer, and member of the executive staff. Prior to his time at eBay, Marty held domestic and international engineering, management, and executive positions at Gateway and Motorola. He 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, has 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 cofounding AKF Partners, Michael was the chief technology officer at Quigo, a startup Internet advertising company that was acquired by AOL in 2007. Before his time at Quigo, Michael served as vice president, engineering and architecture, for PayPal, Inc., an eBay company. Prior to joining PayPal, he 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. He received a Ph.D. and an 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 and innovation department at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management.

Praise for The Art of Scalability, Second Edition "A how-to manual for building a world-class engineering organization with step-by-step instructions on everything including leadership, architecture, operations, and processes. A driver's manual for going from 0 to 60, scaling your business. With this book published, there's no excuse for mistakes-in other words, RTFM." -Lon F. Binder, vice president, technology, Warby Parker "I've worked with AKF for years on tough technical challenges. 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 also 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, Walmart.com "I love this book because it teaches an important lesson most technology-focused books don't: how to build highly scalable and successful technology organizations that build highly scalable technology solutions. There's plenty of great technology coaching in this book, but there are also excellent examples of how to build scalable culture, principles, processes, and decision trees. This book remains one of my few constant go-to reference guides." -Chris Schremser, chief technology officer, ZirMed Praise for the First Edition "This book is much more than you may think it is. Scale is not just about designing Web sites that don't crash when lots of users show up. It is about designing your company so that it doesn't crash when your business needs to grow. These guys have been there on the front lines of some of the most successful Internet companies of our time, and they share the good, the bad, and the ugly about how to not just survive, but thrive." -Marty Cagan, founder, Silicon Valley Product Group "A must read for anyone building a Web service for the mass market." -Dana Stalder, general partner, Matrix Partners "Abbott and Fisher have deep experiences with scale in both large and small enterprises. What's unique about their approach to scalability is they start by focusing on the true foundation: people and process, without which true scalability cannot be built. Abbott and Fisher leverage their years of experience in a very accessible and practical approach to scalability that has been proven over time with their significant success." -Geoffrey Weber, vice president of internet operations/IT, Shutterfly "If I wanted the best diagnoses for my health I would go to the Mayo Clinic. If I wanted the best diagnoses for my portfolio companies' performance and scalability I would call Martin and Michael. They have recommended solutions to performance and scalability issues that have saved some of my companies from a total rewrite of the system." -Warren M. Weiss, general partner, Foundation Capital "As a manager who worked under Michael Fisher and Marty Abbott during my time at PayPal/eBay, the opportunity to directly absorb the lessons and experiences presented in this book are invaluable to me now working at Facebook." -Yishan Wong, former CEO, Reddit, and former director of engineering, Facebook "The Art of Scalability is by far the best book on scalability on the market today. The authors tackle the issues of scalability from processes, to people, to performance, to the highly technical. Whether your organization is just starting out and is defining processes as you go, or you are a mature organization, this is the ideal book to help you deal with scalability issues before, during, or after an incident. Having built several projects, programs, and companies from small to significant scale, I can honestly say I wish I had this book one, five, and ten years ago." -Jeremy Wright, chief executive officer, b5media, Inc. "Only a handful of people in the world have experienced the kind of growth-related challenges that Fisher and Abbott have seen at eBay, PayPal, and the other companies they've helped to build. Fewer still have successfully overcome such challenges. The Art of Scalability provides a great summary of lessons learned while scaling two of the largest internet companies in the history of the space, and it's a must-read for any executive at a hyper-growth company. What's more, it's well-written and highly entertaining. I couldn't put it down." -Kevin Fortuna, partner, AKF Consulting "Marty and Mike's book covers all the bases, from understanding how to build a scalable organization to the processes and technology necessary to run a highly scalable architecture. They have packed in a ton of great practical solutions from real world experiences. This book is a must-read for anyone having difficulty managing the scale of a hyper-growth company or a startup hoping to achieve hyper growth." -Tom Keeven, partner, AKF Consulting "The Art of Scalability is remarkable in its wealth of information and clarity; the authors provide novel, practical, and demystifying approaches to identify, predict, and resolve scalability problems before they surface. Marty Abbott and Michael Fisher use their rich experience and vision, providing unique and groundbreaking tools to assist small and hyper-growth organizations as they maneuver in today's demanding technological environments." -Joseph M. Potenza, attorney, Banner & Witcoff, Ltd.

• Foreword xxiiiAcknowledgments xxviiAbout the Authors xxixIntroduction 1Part I: Staffing a Scalable Organization 7Chapter 1: The Impact of People and Leadership on Scalability 9The Case Method 9Why People? 10Why Organizations? 11Why Management and Leadership? 17Conclusion 19Chapter 2: Roles for the Scalable Technology Organization 21The Effects of Failure 21Defining Roles 23Executive Responsibilities 25Individual Contributor Responsibilities 30A Tool for Defining Responsibilities 35Conclusion 39Chapter 3: Designing Organizations 41Organizational Influences That Affect Scalability 41Team Size 44Organizational Structure 51Conclusion 69Chapter 4: Leadership 101 71What Is Leadership? 72Leadership: A Conceptual Model 74Taking Stock of Who You Are 76Leading from the Front 78Checking Your Ego at the Door 79Mission First, People Always 80Making Timely, Sound, and Morally Correct Decisions 81Empowering Teams and Scalability 82Alignment with Shareholder Value 83Transformational Leadership 84Vision 84Mission 87Goals 89Putting It All Together 90The Causal Roadmap to Success 94Conclusion 95Chapter 5: Management 101 99What Is Management? 100Project and Task Management 102Building Teams: A Sports Analogy 105Upgrading Teams: A Garden Analogy 107Measurement, Metrics, and Goal Evaluation 111The Goal Tree 114Paving the Path for Success 115Conclusion 116Chapter 6: Relationships, Mindset, and the Business Case 119Understanding the Experiential Chasm 119Defeating the IT Mindset 122The Business Case for Scale 124Conclusion 127Part II: Building Processes for Scale 129Chapter 7: Why Processes Are Critical to Scale 131The Purpose of Process 132Right Time, Right Process 135When Good Processes Go Bad 139Conclusion 140Chapter 8: Managing Incidents and Problems 143What Is an Incident? 144What Is a Problem? 145The Components of Incident Management 146The Components of Problem Management 149Resolving Conflicts Between Incident and Problem Management 150Incident and Problem Life Cycles 150Implementing the Daily Incident Meeting 152Implementing the Quarterly Incident Review 153The Postmortem Process 153Putting It All Together 156Conclusion 157Chapter 9: Managing Crises and Escalations 159What Is a Crisis? 160Why Differentiate a Crisis from Any Other Incident? 161How Crises Can Change a Company 162Order Out of Chaos 163Communications and Control 168The War Room 169Escalations 170Status Communications 171Crisis Postmortem and Communication 172Conclusion 173Chapter 10: Controlling Change in Production Environments 177What Is a Change? 178Change Identification 179Change Management 180The Change Control Meeting 191Continuous Process Improvement 192Conclusion 193Chapter 11: Determining Headroom for Applications 197Purpose of the Process 198Structure of the Process 199Ideal Usage Percentage 203A Quick Example Using Spreadsheets 206Conclusion 207Chapter 12: Establishing Architectural Principles 209Principles and Goals 209Principle Selection 212AKF’s Most Commonly Adopted Architectural Principles 214Conclusion 222Chapter 13: Joint Architecture Design and Architecture Review Board 225Fixing Organizational Dysfunction 225Designing for Scale Cross-Functionally 226JAD Entry and Exit Criteria 228From JAD to ARB 230Conducting the Meeting 232ARB Entry and Exit Criteria 234Conclusion 236Chapter 14: Agile Architecture Design 239Architecture in Agile Organizations 240Ownership of Architecture 241Limited Resources 242Standards 243ARB in the Agile Organization 246Conclusion 247Chapter 15: Focus on Core Competencies: Build Versus Buy 249Building Versus Buying, and Scalability 249Focusing on Cost 250Focusing on Strategy 251“Not Built Here” Phenomenon 252Merging Cost and Strategy 252Does This Component Create Strategic Competitive Differentiation? 253Are We the Best Owners of This Component or Asset? 253What Is the Competition for This Component? 254Can We Build This Component Cost-Effectively? 254The Best Buy Decision Ever 255Anatomy of a Build-It-Yourself Failure 256Conclusion 258Chapter 16: Determining Risk 259Importance of Risk Management to Scale 259Measuring Risk 261Managing Risk 268Conclusion 271Chapter 17: Performance and Stress Testing 273Performing Performance Testing 273Don’t Stress over Stress Testing 281Performance and Stress Testing for Scalability 287Conclusion 288Chapter 18: Barrier Conditions and Rollback 291Barrier Conditions 291Rollback Capabilities 297Markdown Functionality: Design to Be Disabled 300Conclusion 301Chapter 19: Fast or Right? 303Tradeoffs in Business 303Relation to Scalability 306How to Think About the Decision 307Conclusion 311Part III: Architecting Scalable Solutions 315Chapter 20: Designing for Any Technology 317An Implementation Is Not an Architecture 317Technology-Agnostic Design 318The TAD Approach 323Conclusion 325Chapter 21: Creating Fault-Isolative Architectural Structures 327Fault-Isolative Architecture Terms 327Benefits of Fault Isolation 329How to Approach Fault Isolation 336When to Implement Fault Isolation 339How to Test Fault-Isolative Designs 341Conclusion 341Chapter 22: Introduction to the AKF Scale Cube 343The AKF Scale Cube 343The x-Axis of the Cube 344The y-Axis of the Cube 346The z-Axis of the Cube 349Putting It All Together 350When and Where to Use the Cube 352Conclusion 353Chapter 23: Splitting Applications for Scale 357The AKF Scale Cube for Applications 357The x-Axis of the AKF Application Scale Cube 359The y-Axis of the AKF Application Scale Cube 361The z-Axis of the AKF Application Scale Cube 363Putting It All Together 365Practical Use of the Application Cube 367Conclusion 371Chapter 24: Splitting Databases for Scale 375Applying the AKF Scale Cube to Databases 375The x-Axis of the AKF Database Scale Cube 376The y-Axis of the AKF Database Scale Cube 381The z-Axis of the AKF Database Scale Cube 383Putting It All Together 385Practical Use of the Database Cube 388Conclusion 393Chapter 25: Caching for Performance and Scale 395Caching Defined 395Object Caches 399Application Caches 402Content Delivery Networks 407Conclusion 408Chapter 26: Asynchronous Design for Scale 411Synching Up on Synchronization 411Synchronous Versus Asynchronous Calls 412Defining State 418Conclusion 422Part IV: Solving Other Issues and Challenges 425Chapter 27: Too Much Data 427The Cost of Data 427The Value of Data and the Cost-Value Dilemma 430Making Data Profitable 431Handling Large Amounts of Data 434Conclusion 444Chapter 28: Grid Computing 447History of Grid Computing 447Pros and Cons of Grids 449Different Uses for Grid Computing 454Conclusion 457Chapter 29: Soaring in the Clouds 459History and Definitions 460Characteristics and Architecture of Clouds 463Differences Between Clouds and Grids 467Pros and Cons of Cloud Computing 468Where Clouds Fit in Different Companies 476Decision Process 478Conclusion 481Chapter 30: Making Applications Cloud Ready 485The Scale Cube in a Cloud 485Overcoming Challenges 487Intuit Case Study 491Conclusion 493Chapter 31: Monitoring Applications 495“Why Didn’t We Catch That Earlier?” 495A Framework for Monitoring 496Measuring Monitoring: What Is and Isn’t Valuable? 503Monitoring and Processes 504Conclusion 506Chapter 32: Planning Data Centers 509Data Center Costs and Constraints 509Location, Location, Location 511Data Centers and Incremental Growth 514When Do I Consider IaaS? 516Three Magic Rules of Three 519Multiple Active Data Center Considerations 525Conclusion 527Chapter 33: Putting It All Together 531What to Do Now? 532Further Resources on Scalability 535Part V: Appendices 537Appendix A: Calculating Availability 539Hardware Uptime 540Customer Complaints 541Portion of Site Down 542Third-Party Monitoring Service 543Business Graph 544Appendix B: Capacity Planning Calculations 547Appendix C: Load and Performance Calculations 555Index 563