Cameron on Limits to Scalability

Whilst working at Los Alamos Richard Feynman delivered a series of lectures to the other scientists on the fundamentals of mathematics.  Of course everyone present knew where he was going, but the pleasure was in watching how he got there.  I had a similar experience watching Cameron Purdy’s presentation today at the Oracle User Group Conference in Birmingham.  His presentation was entitled “Top 10 Patterns for Scaling Out Java™ Technology-Based Applications”.  There wasn’t anything in there I hadn’t seen before, but watching Cameron build up the story and explain the why was a wonderful experience that clarified my thinking and opened up new possibilities to me.  Cameron originally gave this presentation ay JavaOne 2008 and had an hour slot, but at the OUG he only had 45 minutes, no-one complained when he ran over time, and Simon Haslan as session chair let him run over because he was enthralled as everyone else by the delivery style and content.

So what were Camerons 10 patterns?

10. Understand the Problem

9. Define the Requirements

8. Architecture trumps technology

7. Understand the Basics

6. Visualize the Network

5. Visualize the Design

4a. Plan for Overload

4b. Partition for Scalability

3a. Plan for Failure

3b. Replicate for Availability

2. Tier where it makes sense

1. Simplify

If you didn’t attend the presentation at JavaOne or UKOUG then you missed out on half the experience.  If you did miss out then read the presentation and you will probably come away wiser and with greater insight, I know I did.