CS Primer – Distributed Systems

English | MP4 | AVC 1920×1080 | AAC 44KHz 2ch | 13 Lessons (10h 5m) | 1.79 GB

As computers have increased in number, they have also spread. Whereas businesses would previously purchase larger and larger mainframes, it is now typical for even very small applications to run across multiple machines. Distributed systems is the study of how to reason about the trade-offs involved in doing so.

I wish I could tell you that this course will empower you to build whatever system you conceive of, but you will soon find out that distributed systems doesn’t work that way! More realistically, I hope to give you the serenity to accept the distributed systems constraints you cannot change, the courage to change the ones you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

A note about assumed knowledge: distributed systems tends to combine concepts from operating systems, computer networking and databases in particular. For most people, it would make sense to leave the study of distributed systems for last, so I will take as assumed knowledge some of the core concepts of those other topics. That being said, if you are excited to dig in to distributed systems now, don’t get yourself stuck working on earlier courses! You’re of course welcome to dive in here, then dip in and out of other courses as you identify any gaps in your understanding.

This course follows the sequencing of the excellent textbook Designing Data-Intensive Applications (“DDIA” below). While not a traditional academic text, it does a surprisingly good job of combining the principles and practice of distributed systems in what is a rapidly developing field. Kleppmann brings much needed pragmatism to the topic, without compromising the generality or strengths of the underlying theory, making this my favorite overall distributed systems book.