Challenges of Synchronization in Distributed and Monolithic Systems

In the early days of Mailgun I started working on a distributed lock service. Something I had worked on briefly at Rackspace. Even as I implemented the thing, I had the sneaky suspicion that it was a bad idea.

The text discusses the challenges of synchronization in both distributed and monolithic systems, highlighting the negative impact of locks on horizontal scaling. It provides insights into the inefficiency of locks in high-concurrency systems and presents alternative solutions such as sharding, consistent hashing, reservation queues, and avoiding synchronization altogether. Additionally, the text emphasizes the drawbacks of using databases as synchronization points and shares real-world examples of successful implementations. Overall, it underscores the importance of designing systems with scalability in mind and avoiding over-reliance on synchronization.

Synchronization in distributed and monolithic systems can hinder horizontal scaling
Locks create inefficiencies in high-concurrency systems, leading to lock contention
Alternative solutions include sharding, consistent hashing, and reservation queues
Over-reliance on databases as synchronization points can impede scalability
Emphasizes the importance of designing systems with scalability in mind and avoiding unnecessary synchronization