This document discusses the challenges faced by Wunderlist, a to-do list app, in scaling up to support millions of users. It grew rapidly but encountered performance issues due to its monolithic architecture. The document advocates adopting an approach using AWS that embraces small, independent components, continuous measurement and improvement, and fearless changes to infrastructure in order to build systems that can dynamically scale and remain resilient.

1. Hello, we are

2. Failing, scaling, failing,
scaling with AWS
Chad Fowler

3. Wunderlist 2The fastest growing to-do list in the world

4. 250 K
1 14135432 201918171615109876 11 22 25 2821 23 26 2912 24 27 30 31 32 33 MONTHS
USERS
500 K
750 K
1 M
1,25 M
2,25 M
1,5 M
2,5 M
3 M
1,75 M
2,75 M
3,25 M
2 M
3,5 M
2M 14M
2.5M 20M
3M 22M
3.5M 26M
1M 10M
1.5M 12M
500K 5M

5. Typical database-backed
Web API

6. #1To-Do App on Google Play, Chrome & App Store
3world wide features by Apple + Google
600,000new signups within 9 weeks
30,000,000new tasks created
Wunderlist 2 Launch
What we have achieved within only 9 weeks

7. Millions of hungry, polling clients
Mac
Web
Android Phone & Tablet
Windows
iPad & iPhone

8. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fireflythegreat/2845637227/sizes/o/

9. We weren’t
ready

10. Where did we go
wrong?

12. AWS is
more than a toolset

13. AWS is
more than just a different source
of servers

14. Let’s get back to that...

15. “Legacy”

16. 1 a legacy of the wars: CONSEQUENCE, effect,
upshot, spin-off, repercussion, aftermath, by-
product, result.

17. 2 a legacy from a great aunt: BEQUEST,
inheritance, heritage, endowment, gift,
patrimony, settlement, birthright; formal
benefaction.

18. 1994 1996 1998 2000 2004 2006 2009
successful challenged failed
Standish Chaos Report

19. For business software that’s
deployed, the average life
expectancy is five years.*
*I made this up

20. Homeostasis

21. brain kidneyliver
Metabolize toxic
substances
Blood water level,
re-absorption of
substances into blood,
excretion

22. “An inability to maintain homeostasis may
lead to death or a disease, a condition
known as homeostatic imbalance.”

23. You are dying
right now!
50 trillion cells in your body
3 million die per second
(this is a guess)

24. emacs “UNIX”
BSD
C-language toolchain
grep Apache
X-Windows System
make

25. Systems
Small components

26. Organisms vs Cells

27. Systems vs Components

28. http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/4991688551/sizes/o/in/photostream/

30. What is a cell?

31. What is a system?

32. tiny components

33. Kill and replace
cells regularly
forces you to work with small components

34. Force heterogeneity
if it’s hard to do (rewrites) do it all the time

36. Servers are replaceable

37. Add and remove at will

38. Add and remove at will

39. Measure Everything!

43. Fearless Change

44. Crash Tests

45. http://gigaom.com/2012/12/02/pinterest-flipboard-and-yelp-tell-how-to-save-big-bucks-in-the-cloud/
Spot instances are killed
automatically by the system

46. AWS is
more than a toolset

47. AWS is
is an architectural mindset

48. I wish your
applications
and your infrastructure a
long and healthy life

49. Dankeschön!