any good books on scalable web applications (Java/Ajax/REST)?

Question

Are there any good books on the subject worth reading and still up-to-date with current technologies?

I'm mostly interested in back-end architecture and things I should consider choosing clustering and database solution as I plan to use GWT for the front-end therefore won't be able to control a lot there.

I'm looking for a book which will answer questions like: How to choose load balancing strategy? What DB model to choose? How to scale data? How to scale request handling? What are common problems when building web application able to handle huge traffic?

Answer 1

Check out O'Reilly's books. Here's one on High Performance Web Sites.

Answer 2

Perfomance Analysis for Java Web Sites by Stacey Joines et al?

My take is that Ajax doesn't fundamentally affect the overall approach to scalability. It may place even greater emphasis on the intelligent use of caching, but overall everything we knew about scalabilty remains true.

Answer 3

Don't know about books, but if you want information regarding real world, up to the bleeding edge, scalable web applications and architecture, then highscalability is a must read.

Answer 4

About GWT: Google Web Toolkit Applications.

In general Even faster web sites performance and Building scalable web sites are very nice.

I have heard good words on The Art of Capicity Planning too, but i don't have it, so i cannot say from first-hand experience.