This Guide to Reliable Distributed Systems describes the key concepts, principles and implementation options for creating high-assurance cloud computing solutions. In combination with the Isis2 software platform, the text offers a practical path to success in this vital emerging area. Opening with a broad technical overview, the guide then delves into the core challenges of how reliability and fault-tolerance can be abstracted, how the resulting questions can be solved, and how the solutions can be leveraged to create a wide range of practical cloud applications. Readily understandable without any special background, the guide offers concrete examples drawn from real-world settings to illustrate key insights.

Part I: Computing in the Cloud.- The Way of the Cloud.- Client Perspective.- Network Perspective.- The Structure of Cloud Data Centers.- Remote Procedure Calls and the Client/Server Mode.- CORBA: The Common Object Request Broker Architecture.- System Support for Fast Client/Server Communication.- Part II: Reliable Distributed Computing.- How and Why Computer Systems Fail.- Overcoming Failures in a Distributed System.- Dynamic Membership.- Group Communication Systems.- Point to Point and Multi-group Considerations.- The Virtual Synchrony Execution Model.- Consistency in Distributed Systems.- Part III: Applications of Reliability Techniques.- Retrofitting Reliability into Complex Systems.- Software Architectures for Group Communication.- Part IV: Related Technologies.- Security Options for Distributed Settings.- Clock Synchronization and Synchronous Systems.- Transactional Systems.- Peer-to-Peer Systems and Probabilistic Protocols.- Appendix A: Virtually Synchronous Methodology For Building Dynamic Reliable Services.- Appendix B: Isis2API.- Appendix C: Problems.