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289

answers:

3

Can anyone point me to a good primer on how a large scale commercial website like amazon.com is set up? Most importantly, I'd like to know about how the databases are set up. Do they have a distributed set of databases to balance the load, that all sends updates to one 'master' database, etc.? Doesn't have to be the inside dope(although that's preferable), just a plausible account of how smart people would run an amazon.com.

+12  A: 

This may be useful to you..

http://highscalability.com/amazon-architecture

Besides this website contains architectural information about other high volume websites.

Also have a look at this video The Amazon.com Technology Platform: Building Blocks for Innovation.

rajesh pillai
That looks excellent, thanks. -Anon
Anon
+1 for highscalability.com, I was about to give the same URL, this is a great site
lpfavreau
Yeah that's the link I was thinking about too. Its very interesting how Amazon threw everything the text books say out the window in order to reach their scalability.
Robert Gould
yep i was gonna post this
Dammit now its been /.ed
Tim Matthews
So much for the high scalability.
Tim Matthews
+1  A: 

Take a look at these two also:

  1. Dan Pritchett on Architecture at eBay
  2. Randy Shoup Discusses the eBay Architecture
Faisal Feroz
+2  A: 

The guys at software engineering radio have done an interview podcast with Werner Vogels, who is the CTO of amazon.com.

Quite interresting and a lot of detail.

pi