Architecture · Distributed Systems · Cloud
Practical System Design
& Cloud Architecture
Learn how real systems scale, fail, and optimize cost.
The 6 Core Pillars
Everything on this site belongs to one of these learning paths.
Fundamentals of System Design
Core concepts every engineer must understand before going deeper.
- What is System Design
- + more topics coming soon
Traffic & Networking
How data moves across networks and how to design for it.
- Network Observability (VPC Flow Logs, Metrics)
- + more topics coming soon
Data & Storage Architecture
Choosing and designing the right data layer for your system.
- Data Fragmentation & Storage Efficiency
- + more topics coming soon
Scalability & Performance Patterns
Patterns for systems that need to handle growth gracefully.
- Queue-Based Systems
- + more topics coming soon
Reliability & Resilience
Building systems that fail gracefully and recover automatically.
- + more topics coming soon
Cost-Aware Architecture
Engineering decisions that respect budget as a hard constraint.
- NAT Cost Optimisation
- + more topics coming soon
Featured Articles
Practical deep-dives worth reading.
What is System Design
System design is not just an interview topic. It is a way of thinking about how parts connect, how decisions scale, and how systems behave as they grow. We explore these ideas by designing a synthetic monitoring system from scratch.
Rethinking Database Scalability with Serverless Patterns
Learn how to solve database connection limits and scalability challenges by decoupling workloads using serverless patterns. Real-world case study using S3, SQS, and Lambda to scale from thousands of connections to milliseconds-per-connection efficiency.
The Fragmentation Illusion: Why Your Cloud Database Might Not Be as Big as It Looks
Discover how database fragmentation silently inflates your storage footprint, degrades performance, and increases costs. Learn to detect and fix fragmentation in MySQL, PostgreSQL, and other cloud databases.
Stop Guessing Your Traffic: Analyze AWS VPC Flow Logs with Confidence
Learn how to extract actionable insights from AWS VPC Flow Logs using CloudWatch Log Insights and Amazon Athena. Discover traffic patterns, identify security risks, and optimize costs with practical query examples.
Designing a Cost-Effective, High-Visibility Self-Managed NAT Solution on AWS
Learn how to build a self-managed NAT instance on AWS that provides significant cost savings and improved operational visibility compared to AWS Managed NAT Gateway, while maintaining scalability and reliability.