TIS Partners

Architecture advice that starts with the load path.

Scaling

10 articles

· 2 min read

When does caching make it worse?

A cache is a bet that the past predicts the present. Four ways the bet goes wrong, and the questions that price it before you place it.

#scaling#caching#reliability

· 2 min read

What does backpressure tell you?

Backpressure is the system stating its true capacity. The design question is who receives the message: a queue, a caller, or a customer.

#scaling#backpressure#queues

· 2 min read

Where does the OLTP boundary belong now?

Analytics platforms ship serverless Postgres and the old wall between transactional and analytical estates is now a product decision. A review checklist.

#oltp#databases#boundaries

· 2 min read

Is the database the bottleneck?

It is blamed first and guilty about half the time. A short diagnostic sequence that settles the question with evidence instead of instinct.

#scaling#databases#diagnosis

· 2 min read

Is multi-region worth it?

The most expensive default in modern architecture. What the second region truly costs, what it truly buys, and the three cases where it earns its keep.

#scaling#multi-region#resilience

· 2 min read

What is the load path?

Every request your system serves travels a load path, and most teams have never traced one end to end. The first question of every review we run.

#scaling#architecture#reviews

· 2 min read

How do capacity models fail?

Four recurring ways the spreadsheet diverges from the system: averages, linearity, the forgotten dependency, and the model nobody re-ran.

#scaling#capacity#planning

· 2 min read

What does a black start teach a software architect?

In April, the Iberian grid went dark and was rebuilt generator by generator in a day. The restart discipline is one most software estates have never priced.

#reliability#recovery#incidents

· 2 min read

When do you shard?

Later than the conference talks say, earlier than the outage. The conditions that genuinely require sharding, and the key choice that decides the next decade.

#scaling#databases#sharding