Best Databases & Big Data
If you’ve read it before, you’ll rediscover what made Don’t Make Me Think so essential to Web designers and developers around the world. Steve Krug (pronounced "kroog") is best known as the author of Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability , now in its second edition with over 350,000 copies in print.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"As the subtitle, "A Common Sense Approach", and Krug's consultancy's name, "Advanced Common Sense" ([...]) convey, many great design considerations today involve some simple approaches to dramatically improve your web user experiences."
"This should be required reading by ALL marketing execs, ALL web designers and developers, ALL graphic designers, ALL product designers and inventors, and ALL copywriters."
"Krug breaks the issues of usable web design into simple, digestible form for anyone who depends on a website for promotion or income."
"That fact makes this book a good read for anybody who is involved in any aspect of a websites operation, Web Developer, Marketing, Sales and Management (from mid level to upper level)."
"Many of the ideas and resources in the book have been incredibly valuable to me in my work, and it's almost always the first book I recommend to anyone asking questions about User Experience related topics."
"Unlike a boring text book, Krug makes the book really fun with helpful (yet obvious) examples that bring some concepts to life."
"This book was on the "suggested" reading lists for an interface design class that I took in college."
"But how is though to follow common sense when building a website! I use it on my daily work, to guide my business partners in the construction of the websites for my B2B Clients, and after reading it, is quirte amazing how you can immediatelly spot in the web the websites that follow its principles and those that don't."
Explore the machine learning landscape, particularly neural nets Use scikit-learn to track an example machine-learning project end-to-end Explore several training models, including support vector machines, decision trees, random forests, and ensemble methods Use the TensorFlow library to build and train neural nets Dive into neural net architectures, including convolutional nets, recurrent nets, and deep reinforcement learning Learn techniques for training and scaling deep neural nets Apply practical code examples without acquiring excessive machine learning theory or algorithm details.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I got this book for the deep learning portion (about half of the overall book length), and was shocked at the clarity of the conceptual explanations and code implementations."
"Even though I come from a strong theoretical background, I have to say one must do hands on tinkering to be able to solve one's own problem successfully. There are pieces of information hard to find somewhere else, and I have spent hundreds to thousands to attend workshops. I was hoping Keras, a high level api that enables fast experiments, is covered."
"Great book, takes a while to get going, but shows some excellent uses of scikit learn."
"Book content is very up-to-date and offers great hands-on experience."
"Great Book, well explained a lot of good examples, one of those books that the more times you read it , the more you profit from it."
"The choice to start with Scikit-Learn was interesting, but makes sense on some level while he's introducing the more basic machine learning concepts. Simple machine learning techniques like logistic regression, data conditioning, dealing with training, validation, test set. Straightforward setup instructions, pretty intelligible explanation of the basic concepts (variables, placeholders, layers, etc.). The example code is quite good, and the notebooks are quite complete and seem to work well, with maybe a few tweaks and additional setup for some. Even just having a section on reinforcement learning is very rare in a book of this style, and Geron's samples and explanations are really solid."
"As with most technical books, it depends on where in the learning curve you are."
Blending the informed analysis of The Signal and the Noise with the instructive iconoclasm of Think Like a Freak , a fascinating, illuminating, and witty look at what the vast amounts of information now instantly available to us reveals about ourselves and our world—provided we ask the right questions. Everybody Lies offers fascinating, surprising, and sometimes laugh-out-loud insights into everything from economics to ethics to sports to race to sex, gender and more, all drawn from the world of big data. With conclusions ranging from strange-but-true to thought-provoking to disturbing, he explores the power of this digital truth serum and its deeper potential—revealing biases deeply embedded within us, information we can use to change our culture, and the questions we’re afraid to ask that might be essential to our health—both emotional and physical. All of us are touched by big data everyday, and its influence is multiplying. “Brimming with intriguing anecdotes and counterintuitive facts, Stephens-Davidowitz does his level best to help usher in a new age of human understanding, one digital data point at a time.” ( Fortune , Best New Business Books). “ Freakonomics on steroids—this book shows how big data can give us surprising new answers to important and interesting questions. Drawing on a wide variety of revelatory sources, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz will make you cringe, chuckle, and wince at the people you thought we were.” (Christian Rudder, author of Dataclysm ). “A tour de force—a well-written and entertaining journey through big data that, along the way, happens to put forward an important new perspective on human behavior itself. What he found is that Internet search data might be the Holy Grail when it comes to understanding the true nature of humanity.” ( New York Post ). “ Everybody Lies is an astoundingly clever and mischievous exploration of what big data tells us about everyday life.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"The basic thesis of "Everybody Lies" is that online data on human behavior, including Google searches and data from Facebook, shopping and pornographic sites, can reveal much about what we really think than data from surveys in which people might be too embarrassed to tell the truth. What has allowed us to access this pool of unguarded opinions and truckloads of data concerning human behavior is the Internet and the tools of "big" data. As the author puts it, this data is not just "big" but also "new", which means that the kind of data we can access is also quite different from what we are used to; in his words, we live in a world where every sneeze, cough, internet purchase, political opinion, and evening run can be considered "data". Generally speaking there is quite an emphasis on exploring human sexuality in the book, partly because sexuality is one of those aspects of our life that we wish to hide the most and are also pruriently interested in, and partly because investigating this data through Google searches and pornographic sites reveals some rather bizarre sexual preference that are also sometimes specific to one country or another. Based on Google searches in particular states, the author shows how racism (as indicated by racist Google searches) was a primary indicator of which states voted for Obama in the 2008 election and Trump in the 2016 election. The primary tool for doing all this data analysis is correlation or regression analysis, where you look at online searches and try to find correlations between certain terms and factors like geographic location, gender, ethnicity. There are tons of other amusing and informative studies - sometimes the author's own but more often other people's - that reveal human desires and behavior across a wide swathe of fields, including politics, dating, sports, education, shopping and sexuality. As the author himself acknowledges, understanding correlation is not the same as understanding causation, and it's in very few cases that a true causal relationship between people's Google searches and their true nature can be established. At the end of the day you could thus end up with a lot of data (including a lot of noise), but teasing apart the useful data points from the red herrings is a completely different matter. Secondly, it's usually quite hard to control for all possible variables that may reflect a Google search; for instance in concluding that racism contributes the most to a particular political behavior, it's very hard to tease out all other factors that also may do so, especially when you are talking about a heterogeneous collection of human beings."
"And the truths we have been telling Google on sex, racism, antisemitism, mental health and politics are coarse, frightening, disturbing, and altogether too human to ignore. Using a mountain of data from Google searches and other social media like Facebook and Twitter, Stephens-Davidowitz wrote a click-bait book full of insights on humanity based on "the most important dataset ever collected on the human psyche." The digital truth serum, as he calls Google Search data, offers a glimpse at many things social scientists dream to understand, from sexual taboos, proclivities and insecurities, to political bias in the press and latent racism hidden in searches for jokes. Also, it doesn't entirely fall prey to the Big Data a-theoretical hype; discussions on A/B testing, out-of-sample prediction and natural experiments in economics balance the correlational narrative with a good dose of causal inference, which is often missing in books that describe stuff from large data sets."
"I read it in two days. The data is the data, but the interpretation is subjective."
Best Microsoft Access Database Guides
Explains how to create tables, manipulate datasheets, and work with multiple tables Teaches you how to apply the seven-step design method to build databases that are tailored to your needs Covers building forms with wizards, creating bound and unbound forms, and adding data validation Shows you ways to automate query parameters, create functions and subroutines, and add programmed error routines Features a bonus website with content that contains all source code from the book as well as bonus shareware, freeware, trial, demo, and evaluation programs. Learn to create effective tables, powerful analytic queries, robust applications with Access forms, and attractive Access reports while gaining insight on topics like SharePoint® integration and Visual Basic programming. Get a solid grounding in database fundamentals Use Access to analyze large amounts of data Turn your data into attractive PDF-style reports and outputs Automate redundant reporting and analysis using Access macros Build powerful departmental applications with Access forms Save time and increase productivity with Access VBA Integrate or publish your data on SharePoint sites Follow along with downloadable examples and database files from the book.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book was all encompassing it covered everything I needed to learn about Access and gave examples and files from their website that shows you exactly how to construct a database with Access."
"Obviously, the program has changed a great deal since I last looked at it, but this book is so clearly written it very quickly brings you up to speed when you have a solid understanding of what databases do and the theory behind them."
"I remembered the Access book I had relied on most in the 90s – the Access Bible."
"Thin glossy pages - you can see the text, on the next two pages, with an annoying glare - like an annual parts catalog/phone book.. Font - appears to be a normal size, but compacted, with low contrast between upper and lower case sizes. Graphics are awful - need a magnifying glass to read the examples, and even then, it looks like dot matrix print."
"I know a lot about Access basics but being the OCD perfectionist that I am, I decided to start from page 1 (well, page "ix" to be exact LOL) just in case there are little tidbits about the basics that might help me out along the way. I've never been formally trained with regards to databases or the theory of database design. I'm currently trying to learn enough to build a database to track my family finances."
"Users who are new to Access will find it very helpful as well as users who are familiar with earlier versions of Access as there are a lot of changes and enhanced abilities."
"They lack of color and contrast in the application make it tiring to use, however that is no excuse for publishing this book with unreadable figures."
Best Data Mining
This major new edition features many topics not covered in the original, including graphical models, random forests, ensemble methods, least angle regression & path algorithms for the lasso, non-negative matrix factorisation, and spectral clustering. Almost all of the chapters are revised.… The Material is nicely reorganized and repackaged, with the general layout being the same as that of the first edition.… If you bought the first edition, I suggest that you buy the second editon for maximum effect, and if you haven’t, then I still strongly recommend you have this book at your desk. … the book may also be of interest to a theoretically inclined reader looking for an entry point to the area and wanting to get an initial understanding of which mathematical issues are relevant in relation to practice. … this is a welcome update to an already fine book, which will surely reinforce its status as a reference.” (Gilles Blanchard, Mathematical Reviews, Issue 2012 d). You can flip the book open to any page, read a sentence or two and be hooked for the next hour or so.” (Peter Rabinovitch, The Mathematical Association of America, May, 2012).
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"In addition to having excellent and correct mathematical derivations of important algorithms The Elements of Statistical Learning is fairly unique in that it actually uses the math to accomplish big things. This hard use of isomorphism allows amazing results such as Figure 3.15 (which shows how Least Angle Regression differs from Lasso regression, not just in algorithm description or history: but by picking different models from the same data) and section 3.5.2 (which can separate Partial Least Squares' design CLAIM of fixing the x-dominance found in principle components analysis from how effective it actually is as fixing such problems). Unlike some lesser machine learning books the math is not there for appearances or mere intimidating typesetting: it is there to allow the authors to organize many methods into a smaller number of consistent themes."
"A good book in this area."
"While no book I have seen covers every data mining methodology available, this one has the strongest coverage I have seen in additive models, non-linear regression, and CART/MART (regression/classification trees)."
"Good book, help me build a systematic knowledge on statistics and machine learning. Of course, you may need some basic knowledge before reading it if you are novice."
"This book is basically the bible for statistical learning."
"This book is an excellent survey of the huge area of statistics / computer science called statistical learning."
"I'm a machine learning person, and this book provides pretty thorough state-of-art and up-to-date (relatively well) summary of statistical methods being used in lots of pattern classification fields."
"I have a PhD in Math and more particularly stochastic processes and everytime I open this book I can't quite understand what the content is."
Best Data Modeling & Design
Peer under the hood of the systems you already use, and learn how to use and operate them more effectively Make informed decisions by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of different tools Navigate the trade-offs around consistency, scalability, fault tolerance, and complexity Understand the distributed systems research upon which modern databases are built Peek behind the scenes of major online services, and learn from their architectures.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I highly recommend this book for any software engineer."
"Great theoretical overview, not enough practical material to justify the name "designing"."
"I've been looking forward to this book since I pre-ordered it last year. I've been working on this field on and off for the past few years."
"He dives deep into subjects like Btrees, LSM trees, SSTables, and concepts that would normally seem foreign, but because of the author's understanding he breaks it down into tangible bits. By reading this book, you get a clear understanding of real world big data architecture and the drawbacks of things like sharding, replication, lag as well as solutions."
"After that book, you can read the free article "Distributed Systems for Fun and Profit" and you are good to go for this amazing book :D."
"He starts from a functional 4 lines code to build a database to the way how one can interpret and implement concurrency, serializability, isolation and linearizability (the latter for distributed systems). That said, if you ever worked on data systems, especially across paradigms (IMS -> RDBMS -> NoSQL -> Map-Reduce -> Spark -> Streaming -> Polyglot), this book is pretty much only resource out there to tie the "loose ends" and paint a coherent narrative."
Best Data Processing
If you’ve read it before, you’ll rediscover what made Don’t Make Me Think so essential to Web designers and developers around the world. Steve Krug (pronounced "kroog") is best known as the author of Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability , now in its second edition with over 350,000 copies in print.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This book is for anyone who owns a website, builds websites, manages websites others have built, or manages people who build and/or manage websites."
"As the subtitle, "A Common Sense Approach", and Krug's consultancy's name, "Advanced Common Sense" ([...]) convey, many great design considerations today involve some simple approaches to dramatically improve your web user experiences."
"This should be required reading by ALL marketing execs, ALL web designers and developers, ALL graphic designers, ALL product designers and inventors, and ALL copywriters."
"That fact makes this book a good read for anybody who is involved in any aspect of a websites operation, Web Developer, Marketing, Sales and Management (from mid level to upper level)."
"Many of the ideas and resources in the book have been incredibly valuable to me in my work, and it's almost always the first book I recommend to anyone asking questions about User Experience related topics."
"Unlike a boring text book, Krug makes the book really fun with helpful (yet obvious) examples that bring some concepts to life."
"Krug breaks the issues of usable web design into simple, digestible form for anyone who depends on a website for promotion or income."
"This book was on the "suggested" reading lists for an interface design class that I took in college."
Best Data Warehousing
Updated new edition of Ralph Kimball's groundbreaking book on dimensional modeling for data warehousing and business intelligence! Fully updated with fresh insights and best practices, this book provides clear guidelines for designing dimensional models—and does so in a style that serves the needs of those new to data warehousing as well as experienced professionals. Practical design techniques—both basic and advanced—for dimension and fact tables 14 case studies, including retail sales, electronic commerce, customer relationship management, procurement, inventory, order management, accounting, human resources, financial services, healthcare, insurance, education, telecommunications, and transportation Sample data warehouse bus matrices for 12 case studies Dimensional modeling pitfalls and mistakes to avoid Enhanced slowly changing dimension techniques type 0 through 7 Bridge tables for ragged variable depth hierarchies and multivalued attributes Best practices for Big Data analytics Guidelines for collaborative, interactive design sessions with business stakeholders An overview of the Kimball DW/BI project lifecycle methodology Comprehensive review of extract, transformation, and load (ETL) systems and design considerations The 34 ETL subsystems and techniques to populate dimension and fact tables.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"still a goto reference when starting new data warehouse projects."
"A very good book, complete, and updated."
"A few editorial / typo mistakes and more practical big data examples away from 5 stars."
"I was pleasantly surprised to see how much of the content here has been updated to incorporate paradigm shifts and new technologies, while still holding to the well-defined and well-proven Business Dimensional Lifecycle techniques."
"This is a clear and thoughtful book."
"This book really helped me understand Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse strategies."
Best MySQL Guides
Easy visual approach uses demonstrations and real-world examples to guide you step by step through advanced techniques for dynamic Web development using PHP and MySQL. Larry Ullman is a writer, Web and software developer, trainer, instructor, speaker, and consultant.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Much, much more is covered by the 'tutorial' bit of the book, and there's also a number of case-study-style projects after it. A number of common projects are built up on the assumption you've read the rest of the book and know what you're doing, and the code itself (downloadable from the author's webpage) is very useful as a starting point for your own projects. There are regular giveaways of new books, all the code samples are collected there, there's detailed errata collected by the author himself, and most useful of all, there's a forum where the author and other readers of the book can help you with your coding struggles."
"My only real complaint is the use of XHTML instead of HTML 5, a consequence of when the book was published."
"good price and quick shipping."
"This book is a great way to get started with PHP, it builds a good foundation and helps grasp difficult concepts in an easy to follow way."
"But the most intriguing chapter of this book i think it's the introductory chapter about object-oriented programming (ch 16), concise but enough appealing in order to awake interest in the OOP and make me order the third book of the PHP series, PHP Advanced, which deals in much more detail with this subject."
"Recommend for the beginner and the experienced reader who wants to touch back to basics."
"It's rare that I feel this way about a technical book, but every time I pick this book up and read a bit more, I am more and more glad I chose this book over some of the others."
Best Oracle Databases
Get PL/SQL programs up and running quickly, with clear instructions for executing, tracing, testing, debugging, and managing code Understand new 12.1 features, including the ACCESSIBLE_BY clause, WITH FUNCTION and UDF pragma, BEQUEATH CURRENT_USER for views, and new conditional compilation directives Take advantage of extensive code samples, from easy-to-follow examples to reusable packaged utilities Optimize PL/SQL performance with features like the function result cache and Oracle utilities such as PL/Scope and the PL/SQL hierarchical profiler Build modular, easy-to-maintain PL/SQL applications using packages, procedures, functions, and triggers. Steven Feuerstein is considered to be one of the world's leading experts on the Oracle PL/SQL language, having written ten books on PL/SQL, including Oracle PL/SQL Programming and Oracle PL/SQL Best Practices (all published by O'Reilly Media). At home with his family in Houston, Texas, Bill's current nonbillable titles include Webmaster for his neighborhood civic club, "IT Guy" for his son's Boy Scout troop, and Eucharistic Adoration Coordinator for his church.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Oracle's website has a ton of great information, but having a book like this with examples and further explanations comes in very handy when getting exposed to/learning PL/SQL."
"This book is awesome."
"Love this book, it's been my go to reference for years."
"All Feuersteins books are five star."
"What could anyone say other than this book should be required reading for anyone that needs to use PL/SQL."
"amazing, lots of coding examples and really great utility."
Best Other Databases
How to create histograms, summarize data into buckets, perform aggregations over a moving range of values, generate running-totals and subtotals, and other advanced, data warehousing techniques The technique of walking a string , which allows you to use SQL to parse through the characters, words, or delimited elements of a string. Anthony's credo is: "When it comes down to it, we all go to work, we all have bills to pay, and we all want to go home at a reasonable time and enjoy what's still available of our days." SQL is particular passion of Anthony's, and he's become known as the go-to guy among his clients when it comes to solving difficult SQL query problems.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Excellent book for references."
"Over the last couple of years I have been learning SQL for data analysis and collection."
"I find this very useful for many small SQL snippet that I need to write from time to time as I am not a programmer but rather someone who queries data from time-to-time."
"useful handbook for a quick lookup."
"concise and accurate refresher for multiple SQL dialects."
"A must have for any serious SQL developer or SQL Admin's collection."
"It is definitely a classic for SQL developers."
"You won't find SQL tricks ala Celko's books, but sometimes all you want is help on your day to day."
Best Relational Databases
Understanding DB2: Learning Visually with Examples, Second Edition, is the easiest way to master the latest versions of DB2 and apply their full power to your business challenges. Written by four IBM DB2 experts, this book introduces key concepts with dozens of examples drawn from the authors' experience working with DB2 in enterprise environments. Thoroughly updated for DB2 9.5, it covers new innovations ranging from manageability to performance and XML support to API integration. Understanding DB2 teaches DB2 V8.2 visually, step by step, with dozens of examples and case studies drawn from the authors' unsurpassed experience as DB2 consultants at IBM. For those preparing for certification, this book also contains over a hundred sample questions crafted by the authors to reflect the content and format of the IBM DB2 UDB Database Administration Certification exams, with answers and detailed explanations. Raul F. Chong, DB2 on Campus Program Manager at the IBM Toronto Laboratory, is a DB2 Certified Solutions Expert in administration and application development with ten years of experience in DB2. He has helped customers resolve DB2 migration, performance, and design issues; developed new DB2 solutions; taught DB2 workshops; contributed to DB2 exam tutorials; and was the lead author of the first edition of Understanding DB2 . He is the coauthor of Advanced DBA Certification Guide and Reference for DB2 Universal Database for Linux, UNIX, and Windows , DB2 UDB for Windows , and the first edition of Understanding DB2 .
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"This is a good reference book for a DBA (or a wanna-be DBA)."
"Nonetheless, this is a good book to start learning DB2."
"You can found official community eBooks on 10 and IBM Data Studio online."
"I love this book and recommend it to anyone looking for the DB2 book to buy."
"Not alot of DB2 books out there (unlike Oracle), but the one's I have read are either very old or geared towards mainframes."
"The diagrams and tables are used effectively to clarify concepts."
"Can't wait to begin learning about db2 databases."
"Beware."
Best SQL
Whether you're an application developer, database administrator, web application designer, mobile app developer, or Microsoft Office users, a good working knowledge of SQL is an important part of interacting with databases. And Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes offers the straightforward, practical answers you need to help you do your job. Expert trainer and popular author Ben Forta teaches you just the parts of SQL you need to know–starting with simple data retrieval and quickly going on to more complex topics including the use of joins, subqueries, stored procedures, cursors, triggers, and table constraints. You'll learn methodically, systematically, and simply–in 22 short, quick lessons that will each take only 10 minutes or less to complete. With the Fourth Edition of this worldwide bestseller, the book has been thoroughly updated, expanded, and improved. Lessons now cover the latest versions of IBM DB2, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MariaDB, and Apache Open Office Base. And new full-color SQL code listings help the beginner clearly see the elements and structure of the language. Construct complex SQL statements using multiple clauses and operators. He is the author of the best-selling Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes , spinoff titles on MySQL and SQL Server T-SQL, ColdFusion Web Application Construction Kit and Advanced ColdFusion Application Development (both published by Adobe Press), Sams Teach Yourself Regular Expressions in 10 Minutes , as well as books on Flash, Java, Windows, and other subjects.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"great quick ref for daily sql users or someone who is just starting to learn."
"), people looking for a book about databases (this book only goes into the basic SQL stuff, though it does mention a couple good practices for database structure), anyone who wants an in-depth book about SQL (it really does just cover the basics). In short, this book is for newbies who need to learn SQL quickly: just the basics, an intro into more advanced topics, it's very user friendly, easy to follow, and you can get through it in an afternoon if need be."
"This is a brilliantly colored guide that takes you step-by-step through the basic of learning SQL."
"Mr. Forta navigates effortlessly through the deeper constructs of SQL, illuminating such oddities as the the Cartesian Product with the same ease that he describes time-saving techniques like JOINS and SUBQUERIES."
"However, in practice, this is the first book I turn to when I need a quick reference for basic/intermediate SQL use."
"The Kindle versions also helpful because I don't have to carry the book with me everywhere."
"I don't really write review on product but today I decided to do that because this book is on point."
"Not good."
Best Desktop Database Books
Peer under the hood of the systems you already use, and learn how to use and operate them more effectively Make informed decisions by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of different tools Navigate the trade-offs around consistency, scalability, fault tolerance, and complexity Understand the distributed systems research upon which modern databases are built Peek behind the scenes of major online services, and learn from their architectures. Martin is a researcher in distributed systems at the University of Cambridge.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Couldn't recommend a better book if you want to update in the latest trendings about data storage and manipulation and truly understand what's behind it."
"An excellent in-depth overview of what kind of persistency solutions are available today -- along with insights into the most important traits of their (implementational) logic, including pros and cons to support the design of data intensive applications."
"I highly recommend this book for any software engineer."
"Best book for getting up to date on databases."
"Great theoretical overview, not enough practical material to justify the name "designing"."
"Very good book with narratives and examples."
"I've been looking forward to this book since I pre-ordered it last year. I've been working on this field on and off for the past few years."
"He dives deep into subjects like Btrees, LSM trees, SSTables, and concepts that would normally seem foreign, but because of the author's understanding he breaks it down into tangible bits. By reading this book, you get a clear understanding of real world big data architecture and the drawbacks of things like sharding, replication, lag as well as solutions."