Moving out of the Garage Scaling for Startups AKA why scaling is fun

Why are you here? I want to conquer an incredibly technically challenging problem that no one has solved Others have attempted to solve it and failed (or succeeded but I can do it better) I see something that no one has tried to solve I want to build a business possibly based on technology that fills a gap in the market Technology is core, product is centric I want to leverage technology to build a non tech based revenue generating business Technology is awesome, and it is going to support my business.

I want to conquer an incredibly technically challenging problem that no one has solved

Others have attempted to solve it and failed (or succeeded but I can do it better)

I see something that no one has tried to solve

I want to build a business possibly based on technology that fills a gap in the market

Technology is core, product is centric

I want to leverage technology to build a non tech based revenue generating business

Technology is awesome, and it is going to support my business.

The Path

Day 1: aka the last easy day of your life (or at least for a while)

G2

Day X

myspace.com : a place for moving 0-20M active users in 2 years 0-100M active users in 4 years

Laying Foundations Lay groundwork to prepare for 3 critical growth phases Scaling the technology Scaling the team Scaling the revenues/efficiency Decisions made in first 90 days create lasting impressions that can be felt for years

Lay groundwork to prepare for 3 critical growth phases

Scaling the technology

Scaling the team

Scaling the revenues/efficiency

Decisions made in first 90 days create lasting impressions that can be felt for years

Scaling the Technology Scale up vs. scale out is no longer a question Unless you just founded a bank, don’t scale up  Partition Data Decide early on, and make the right decision Range Based Mod Based Mod’ed Ranges (if I had to do it over) Concentrate on write management

Scale up vs. scale out is no longer a question

Unless you just founded a bank, don’t scale up 

Partition Data

Decide early on, and make the right decision

Range Based

Mod Based

Mod’ed Ranges (if I had to do it over)

Concentrate on write management

Scaling the Technology Don’t solve problems you don’t have Reuse as many existing solutions as possible What are your goals? Make $$? Build Cool Technology? Both? Fail Fast Admit failure Don’t Double Down on bad decisions Walk away from failure

Don’t solve problems you don’t have

Reuse as many existing solutions as possible

What are your goals?

Make $$?

Build Cool Technology?

Both?

Fail Fast

Admit failure

Don’t Double Down on bad decisions

Walk away from failure

Infrastructure Decisions Leverage existing publically available scaling solutions Replication Sharding Memcache Hardware loadbalancers NAS/SAN Leverage public solutions when possible, when not develop proprietary internal scaling solutions Myspace DFS MyCache Transaction Manager Dspace map/reduce Leverage public and internal solutions Without negatively impacting developer productivity Without wasting time Without wasting money Easiest Harder Most Difficult

Leverage existing publically

available scaling solutions

Replication

Sharding

Memcache

Hardware loadbalancers

NAS/SAN

Leverage public solutions when possible, when not develop proprietary internal scaling solutions

Myspace DFS

MyCache

Transaction Manager

Dspace map/reduce

Leverage public and internal solutions

Without negatively impacting developer productivity

Without wasting time

Without wasting money

Decouple the User from the Authoritative Disks Reading Writing Cache Queue Authoritative Primary Arrays Overflow Overflow Relational Data Store Flat Data Store SAN/NAS Virtualization Layer

Decouple the User from the Authoritative Disks Reading Writing Cache Queue Authoritative Primary Arrays Overflow Overflow Relational Data Store Flat Data Store SAN/NAS Virtualization Layer

Decouple the User from the Authoritative Disks Reading Writing Cache Queue Authoritative Primary Arrays Overflow Overflow Relational Data Store Flat Data Store SAN/NAS Virtualization Layer

Range Partitions Users 0 -1 Million Users 1-2 Million Users 2–3 Million New User Pipe Infinitely Scalable Newest Ranges Create Hot Spots

Infinitely Scalable

Newest Ranges Create Hot Spots

Mod Partitions Mod 1 Mod 2 Mod 3 New User Pipe Eliminates Hot Spots Difficult to add new hardware Scalable only to a certain point

Eliminates Hot Spots

Difficult to add new hardware

Scalable only to a certain point

Mod/Range Combo Partitioning Users 0 – 1 Million / Mod 1 New User Pipe Users 0 – 1 Million / Mod 2 Users 0 – 1 Million / Mod 3 Users 1 – 2 Million / Mod 1 Users 1 – 2 Million / Mod 2 Users 1 – 2 Million / Mod 3 Eliminates Hot Spots Infinitely Scalable Adding additional hardware is easy

Eliminates Hot Spots

Infinitely Scalable

Adding additional hardware is easy

Scaling the Organization The first 25 people you hire will define the success of your company Don’t hire fast, hire smart Manage your burn, not your timeframe Do you have competitors trying to do the same? Are you second to market? Sprint Is it new? Is no one else thinking about this? Marathon Be smart about your stealth phase Countless failures from coming out to early Countless failures from coming out to late

The first 25 people you hire will define the success of your company

Don’t hire fast, hire smart

Manage your burn, not your timeframe

Do you have competitors trying to do the same?

Are you second to market?

Sprint

Is it new? Is no one else thinking about this?

Marathon

Be smart about your stealth phase

Countless failures from coming out to early

Countless failures from coming out to late

We Want To Code

Scaling the Organization #1 Priority – Minimize ramp time Counterpart to technology’s “fail fast” Abstract core technologies from front end development groups Data Access Layer Cache Queues Etc. Create vertical product partitions with horizontal skillset partitions

#1 Priority – Minimize ramp time

Counterpart to technology’s “fail fast”

Abstract core technologies from front end development groups

Data Access Layer

Cache

Queues

Etc.

Create vertical product partitions with horizontal skillset partitions

Scaling Profit Technology is a cost center Manage profit by managing expenses Bucket Scaling Model Calculate yearly cost of user Inverse LUV Use commodity gear No SAN/NAS unless absolutely necessary Leverage CDN The Cloud?

Technology is a cost center

Manage profit by managing expenses

Bucket Scaling Model

Calculate yearly cost of user

Inverse LUV

Use commodity gear

No SAN/NAS unless absolutely necessary

Leverage CDN

The Cloud?

True? False?

True? False?

The Cloud I love a good buzzword Cloud Computing Economies of scale? Little to no SLA. Now you own my data Consumers eat the cloud Email (circa…how long ago?) Photos Interests The cloud has existed for consumers for the last 15 years As a business, unless you are doing something that requires huge volatile processing power, rent your servers. Don’t handshake your data Your business is your data Build your own cloud GlusterFS MaxiScale

I love a good buzzword

Cloud Computing

Economies of scale?

Little to no SLA. Now you own my data

Consumers eat the cloud

Email (circa…how long ago?)

Photos

Interests

The cloud has existed for consumers for the last 15 years

As a business, unless you are doing something that requires huge volatile processing power, rent your servers.

Don’t handshake your data

Your business is your data

Build your own cloud

GlusterFS

MaxiScale

Questions?