System & Design

Exploring the intersection of heuristics and software craftsmanship

system

Distributed Transactions: An Intuitive Deep Dive

Distributed transactions: A deep dive into cross-service atomicity, database consistency, and failure recovery. Explore 2PC, Sagas, and more to ensure data integrity across microservices.

distributed transactions
distributed systems
two-phase commit
three-phase commit
saga pattern
compensating transactions
microservices
atomicity consistency isolation durability
system

How To Handle Distributed Transactions in Microservices

Distributed transactions are the hardest part of microservices. This guide breaks down proven patterns—sagas, outbox, idempotency—with real code and lessons from production. Learn which frameworks to use, how to survive failures, and how to build systems that stay consistent without sacrificing scalability. Perfect for engineers and teams designing modern microservice architectures.

distributed transactions
microservices
saga pattern
event-driven architecture
system design
outbox pattern
temporal
observability
system

Designing a High-Performance Static+Dynamic Web Architecture with CDN and Next.js

Building a scalable web app is more than picking a framework—it’s about orchestrating edge caching, rendering modes, and automated pipelines for peak performance. This post breaks down real-world architecture patterns with CDN and Next.js, benchmarks static vs. dynamic rendering, and highlights CloudFront best practices. If you’re architecting for millions of users—or want a blueprint for hybrid static/dynamic scale—start here.

cdn
next.js
static site generation
incremental static regeneration
cloudfront
aws certificate manager
ci/cd
edge caching
s3
server-side rendering
dns validation
wave-powered architecture
system

Evolving Scalability and Maintainability from 10K to 1M+ Daily Active Users

Discover concrete system architecture patterns and engineering trade-offs for scaling platforms from 10,000 to over 1 million daily active users. A senior engineer’s guide to maintainable code, microservices, distributed databases, multi-region deployments, caching, CI/CD, and service mesh—no buzzwords, just actionable advice.

daily active user
scalability
system architecture
maintainability
high availability
system

Resolving RAC0690 on Dell PowerEdge Servers Running Ubuntu 20.04

Learn how to resolve the RAC0690 warning on Dell PowerEdge servers running Ubuntu 20.04 by installing the iDRAC Service Module (iSM). This step-by-step guide covers the cause of the warning, why iSM is essential for full hardware observability, and how to enable seamless integration between your OS and Dell’s iDRAC management interface.

Dell PowerEdge
RAC0690
iDRAC Service Module
iSM
Ubuntu 20.04
Dell server management
Linux server monitoring
out-of-band management
remote lifecycle management
server observability
dcismeng
Dell EMC drivers
iDRAC integration
system

Hard Lessons from Operating Stateful Systems on Kubernetes: Why We Moved Away from EFS

Learn why Amazon EFS fell short for stateful workloads on Kubernetes and how moving to image-based deployments with node-local persistent volumes improved speed, reliability, and operational control. This post shares real-world performance data, practical architecture tips, and key lessons for running production-grade systems.

Kubernetes stateful workloads
Amazon EFS
persistent storage
EBS volumes
statefulset best practices
Kubernetes storage
CI/CD
MariaDB Kubernetes
Kubernetes architecture
NFS vs EBS
cloud infrastructure
performance comparison
system

Building a Robust, Extensible Kubernetes Ingress Architecture

Learn how to build a secure, scalable Kubernetes ingress architecture on AWS—combining NGINX, cert-manager, and automated TLS to handle multiple hostnames, rate limiting, and future service expansion. Includes real-world YAML and operational tips.

ingress
security
architect
Kubernetes TLS automation
multi-service ingress
path-based routing
namespace isolation
rate limiting ingress
cert-manager letsencrypt