Discover new ways to optimize database performance and avoid common mistakes that impact latency and throughput
So many things have to align perfectly for impressive database performance. You need to think hard about factors like:
- The infrastructure your database sits on
- How it’s set up
- How you’re managing it
- How your application interacts with the driver
- How the driver interacts with your database
- How that database is designed
- How well its approach aligns with your specific workload characteristics and requirements
And that’s just scratching the surface. Behind each of those elements, there’s likely years of engineering efforts from the database side – not to mention all the user-side strategizing, trial-and-error optimization, and high-pressure triaging.
Most teams don’t have that level of time and patience. They need performance, and they want it now.
Enter Database Performance at Scale, a new (free) open source book written by ScyllaDB employees and contributors Felipe Cardeneti Mendes, Piotr Sarna, Pavel Emelyanov, and Cynthia Dunlop. The authors set out to cover the many different elements that impact database performance, offering clear, practical recommendations based on their own engineering efforts and experience with thousands of real-world database deployments.
The complete 270-page book is available now, for free.
Here are a few important things to note…
It’s not “about” ScyllaDB – but it’s highly relevant for anyone using or considering it
While this book was written by people who have been working at ScyllaDB, it’s not a book “about” ScyllaDB per se. The authors wanted to explore the topic of database performance at a broader level so the book would be relevant even beyond the ScyllaDB community. It doesn’t matter what database you’re currently using (MongoDB, MySQL, Postgres, Cassandra, DynamoDB…). If you’re experiencing some pain related to database latency and/or throughput – or you fear you will suffer soon – this is a book for you.
If you’re considering or already using ScyllaDB, you’ll definitely want to look at this book. It features the collective wisdom of teams who develop ScyllaDB and guide our customers through their most complex challenges. And if you want to discuss these topics in relation to your specific use case, we’d be happy to chat more – just contact us.
Also, if you are interested in a book specifically about ScyllaDB, stay tuned to our social media handles. There will be some exciting news on that front quite soon. 😉
It’s highly opinionated
When ScyllaDB started working with Discord 5 years ago, one of the things they appreciated most was “the joy of opinionated systems.” In other words, “people who are good stewards of the system have already figured out what is important.”
This opinionated approach is a hallmark of the Database Performance at Scale book. Whether explaining a performance-critical decision that a database user will likely face or sharing the rationale behind various engineering optimizations, the authors present their perspective on the associated tradeoffs, along with their recommendations on what’s best from the perspective of performance.
It’s free, it’s open… and it’s fun
The authors, and all the engineers throughout both ScyllaDB and Turso, are avid open source supporters and contributors. When presented with the opportunity to write a book, everyone agreed that taking an “open source” approach would be the best way to make the finished product readily accessible to all interested readers.
Apress, the book’s publisher, offers an “Open Access” series of books – and that’s what we selected. This means that the digital version is available free of charge, and the entire book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Print editions are available at cost through all the standard booksellers, and ScyllaDB will be featuring printed books at our events (like P99 CONF) and through special book giveaways (become eligible by signing up here).
Digital Download + Request Printed Book
Finally, you might not expect a book on databases to be a fun read. That’s fair. But as you might have sensed by now, these authors like to do things a bit differently. Dive into Chapter 1, and see for yourself!
