Building scalable software requires designing it so that adding more hardware allows the software to utilize that hardware. Key considerations include avoiding contention over shared resources like CPU, disk, memory and network. Examples of scalable architectures include lock-free skiplist indexes, sharding or partitioning data across multiple machines, distributed query execution, and columnar data stores. Building for scale changes how software features are developed, requiring simple initial designs, leveraging existing resources, ensuring the right technical decisions through code reviews and technical leadership.

1. Building Software to Scale
Adam Prout, Senior Vice President Engineering and Chief Architect

2. Software is designed in such a way that as you
add hardware, the software is able to fully
utilize that hardware
The gold standard: linear scalability
Software Scalability. What it Means

3. Be aware of contention points.
They usually exist around shared resources
(cpu, disk, memory, network)
Examples:
▪ SKIPLISTS
▪ SHARDING
Considerations for Software Scalability

4. ▪ Provides scalable access to data in memory
▪ Lock-free --> simplicity
Developing Lock-Free Skiplist Indexes
http://blog.memsql.com/the-story-behind-memsqls-skiplist-indexes/

5. Sharding
Agg 1 Agg 2
Leaf 1 Leaf 2 Leaf 3 Leaf 4
Provides scalable access to data by partitioning that data
across a cluster of machines

6. Distributed query execution
▪ Scalable use of CPUs
Columnstore
▪ Scalable access to data on disk
▪ Compression
Other Examples

7. Recommended approach:
1. Start simple
2. Leverage existing resources
Building Scalable Software
Changes How You Build Product Features

8. ▪ Ensure that the team makes the right design
and implementation decisions
▪ Set the culture on the engineering team
▪ Identify gatekeepers
▪ Implement rigorous code reviews
Strong Technical Leaders are Critical

9. Thank You