Distributed Systems by Sape Mullender

What it is about

Before AWS, GCP, Docker and Kubernetes, people were already building µ-service architectures, they just did not call them like that, were much harder to implement and showed up only in exotic fields like telecommunications, automation and controls and the like.

This book has the advantage over newer books of not having any buzzwords to rely on, so its description of how distributed systems work, what are the key design considerations and how to think about them is completely hype free. Despite its age, it retains full validity to understand the underlying concepts of more modern systems like kubernetes, REST, gRpc, etc... if you are not satisfied with a <shut-up and code> understanding of modern architectures.

Why it changed my thinking

I was working in the telecom industry at the time, and the complexity of design challenges was mind blowing with many systems and protocols based on ad-hoc designs. This book gave me a frame of reference for how to think about the different technologies, design tradeoffs and potential gotchas much earlier in the project lifecycle.

Where to get it

(Note, if you buy from the links here, I get a little commission back)