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A light-hearted look at the essential truths of distributed computing.

Distributed computing is inherently complex. As you start to build, maintain, and modify these critical systems, it pays to know how they work. This book introduces Peter Deutsch’s eight fallacies of distributed systems as a collection of clear mental models presented with the tongue-in-cheek humor of author David Boike.

In Dr. Harvey and the 8 Fallacies of Distributed Computing, you’ll learn:

• Why all networks are unreliable—and what to do about it
• Why latency is never zero and bandwidth is never infinite
• Why and how system topology changes
• Why web services--including RESTful services--don't scale
• …and more

In Dr. Harvey and the 8 Fallacies of Distributed Computing, you’ll meet Dr. Harvey Fallacious, a 19th-century explorer and researcher who discovers stories related to the 8 Fallacies of Distributed Computing 160 years before Peter Deutsch takes credit for them. This short book introduces each essential truth of distributed computing—along with the mistakes to avoid when designing distributed system architectures—with a light-hearted introduction from Dr. Harvey's journal.