One of the core tools in the belt of the distributed database is consistent hashing. In Riak this is especially true, as it stands at the core of a Riak Cluster. Hashing, using a hash function, is an algorithm that maps data to variable length to data that’s fixed. In other words, odd things like... Continue reading →

Setting up Riak to test out, prototype against, develop and use in a general way is extremely easy. Just setup a devrel on your local development machine. This is however limited to certain *nix based operating systems, so Windows as a dev platform is out – but not completely. Get a virtual machine running on... Continue reading →

First things first – If you haven’t registered for the Polyglot Conference yet, get registered ASAP as it could sell out! I have a workshop coming up on Friday of this week at the Vancouver BC Polyglot Conf. In addition I’ll be attending the conference itself and looking to have a lot of conversations and... Continue reading →

I’ve got more than a few series in the queue, so why not another one eh! The intent is, I’ll grab a specific topic to break down and add details to related to distributed systems, primarily around Riak. I will however diverge into other distributed databases too, but I’ll primarily be sticking to Riak. Without... Continue reading →

Today I participated in the OpenShift Community Day here in Portland at the Doubletree Hotel. One of the things I wanted to research was the possibility of putting together a OpenShift Origin Cartridge for Riak. As with most PaaS Systems this isn’t the most straight forward process. The reason is simple, OpenShift and CloudFoundry have... Continue reading →