High Availability: Design, Techniques and Processes

Rating:
Summary: High Availability
Review: A must read book for all IT Tycoon Wannabe.

Rating:
Summary: A High Level Overview
Review: This is a very high level view on the subject of HA, as previous reviewers state. It does present some basic guidlines at the system, network, and operational level which in my experience are so basic and intuitive, that I wonder why the author needs to state in "Special techniques for system realiability", that you should purchase from reputable supplies and even to recommend not to use shareware and freeware ? In general for a CEO or Manager who knows nothing on HA, this book is for you. This is a non technical brief, and its undenable shortcomings are its lack of coverage on recent hardware and software based clustering, cashing and load balansing technologies in the market now, specifcally related to e-commerce applications, middleware and CMS tools which now incorporate many HA features. Additionally, its lacks clear focus with hardly any case studies or real worl examples, and the primary examples of HA in the defintion of the author are client server related hardware technologies such as RAID, redundant NIC's and clustering examples.

Rating:
Summary: Another building block in the Enterprise Computing Series
Review: You cannot judge a book by its cover in most cases. This book's cover, however, subtly provides clues about what's inside. The picture is a panoramic view of Hong Kong taken from Victoria Peak. It accurately portrays the book, which is a high-level view of a wide number of topics related to high availability. If you are expecting nuts-and-bolts technical information, then you are better off purchasing Blueprints for High Availability. If you want a "how to" book that blends a specific technical approach with processes you should look at Mission Critical Systems Management. However, if you want a book that provides a clear set of processes, takes a business case approach, and touches on most of the issues associated with high availability, then this book is what you are looking for.

Like Hong Kong, where realities are in the eye and mind of the beholder, the book can be viewed as addressing either high availability or service level management. In fact, the book uses service level management as the driving force behind achieving high availability.

Included in the panoramic view of high availability are the many issues and factors that need to be understood in order to achieve high availability. It starts out with reasons why high availability is important, and quickly segues into factors, such as total cost of ownership (the treatment is pretty close to what GartnerGroup has been peddling since the early 90s). It does cause one to get back to basics and consider that a high availability solution has a lot of hidden costs.

The book goes through the process chain needed to develop a business case for high availability (one of the book's strong points, in my opinion), through implementation of the solution itself. If you are familiar with other books in this series you will recognize the pattern. Unlike the companion books, though, this one does not contain contradictions or have glaring gaps in the processes. The authors have thought this one through and have the writing skills to make it readable and understandable.

The treatment of service level management is highlighted by a chapter on user availability. If you are in IT you should read and take to heart this section. User availability is a key component of aligning IT to business. The complex and myraid political issues in Hong Kong sometimes seem trite compared to the political issues that surround aligning these two factions. The authors, like seasoned China watchers, provide insights about how to understand the seemingly inscrutable players and sage advice on hot to achieve consensus among the two opposing factions.

Another area that impressed me was the attention paid to facilities as a key component of high availability. Although this was a high level view, it can serve as a checklist of considerations as you are developing the business case for high availability. There was one missing fact that I wish the authors would have highlighted: compliance with fire and safety regulations and local building codes. I have seen cases where well designed solutions that were supported by excellent processes and sound management were compromised by failing a regulatory inspection. Imagine explaining to a CEO why the multimillion dollar investment in people, process and technology failed because an inspector shut down a mission critical data center because of a building code violation.

There is some token attention paid to the technology at the end of the book where high availability features are examined for specific products. Among the products covered are Windows 2000, Novell Netware, Solaris 8, AIX and OS/400. Also covered are various hardware platforms, such as S/390, AS/400, RS/6000 and Compaq Proliant server, and Oracle 8i availability features.

Bottom line: This book is about processes. It complements and augments Blueprints for High Avalability by wrapping a sound approach to making a case for, and implementing, high availability. It is also a great companion to Mission Critical Systems Management, again by providing complementary processes to the approach taken in that excellent book.

I wish the authors had summarized the issues and factors in an appendix of checklists, but other than that, this book is a solid addition to any service delivery library.

Rating:
Summary: Another building block in the Enterprise Computing Series
Review: You cannot judge a book by its cover in most cases. This book's cover, however, subtly provides clues about what's inside. The picture is a panoramic view of Hong Kong taken from Victoria Peak. It accurately portrays the book, which is a high-level view of a wide number of topics related to high availability. If you are expecting nuts-and-bolts technical information, then you are better off purchasing Blueprints for High Availability. If you want a "how to" book that blends a specific technical approach with processes you should look at Mission Critical Systems Management. However, if you want a book that provides a clear set of processes, takes a business case approach, and touches on most of the issues associated with high availability, then this book is what you are looking for.

Like Hong Kong, where realities are in the eye and mind of the beholder, the book can be viewed as addressing either high availability or service level management. In fact, the book uses service level management as the driving force behind achieving high availability.

Included in the panoramic view of high availability are the many issues and factors that need to be understood in order to achieve high availability. It starts out with reasons why high availability is important, and quickly segues into factors, such as total cost of ownership (the treatment is pretty close to what GartnerGroup has been peddling since the early 90s). It does cause one to get back to basics and consider that a high availability solution has a lot of hidden costs.

The book goes through the process chain needed to develop a business case for high availability (one of the book's strong points, in my opinion), through implementation of the solution itself. If you are familiar with other books in this series you will recognize the pattern. Unlike the companion books, though, this one does not contain contradictions or have glaring gaps in the processes. The authors have thought this one through and have the writing skills to make it readable and understandable.

The treatment of service level management is highlighted by a chapter on user availability. If you are in IT you should read and take to heart this section. User availability is a key component of aligning IT to business. The complex and myraid political issues in Hong Kong sometimes seem trite compared to the political issues that surround aligning these two factions. The authors, like seasoned China watchers, provide insights about how to understand the seemingly inscrutable players and sage advice on hot to achieve consensus among the two opposing factions.

Another area that impressed me was the attention paid to facilities as a key component of high availability. Although this was a high level view, it can serve as a checklist of considerations as you are developing the business case for high availability. There was one missing fact that I wish the authors would have highlighted: compliance with fire and safety regulations and local building codes. I have seen cases where well designed solutions that were supported by excellent processes and sound management were compromised by failing a regulatory inspection. Imagine explaining to a CEO why the multimillion dollar investment in people, process and technology failed because an inspector shut down a mission critical data center because of a building code violation.

There is some token attention paid to the technology at the end of the book where high availability features are examined for specific products. Among the products covered are Windows 2000, Novell Netware, Solaris 8, AIX and OS/400. Also covered are various hardware platforms, such as S/390, AS/400, RS/6000 and Compaq Proliant server, and Oracle 8i availability features.

Bottom line: This book is about processes. It complements and augments Blueprints for High Avalability by wrapping a sound approach to making a case for, and implementing, high availability. It is also a great companion to Mission Critical Systems Management, again by providing complementary processes to the approach taken in that excellent book.

I wish the authors had summarized the issues and factors in an appendix of checklists, but other than that, this book is a solid addition to any service delivery library.