February 24, 2013
Recently, Riak engineer, Eric Redmond, published “A Little Riak Book.” This book is available free for download at littleriakbook.com and provides a great overview of Riak, including how to think about a distributed system compared to more traditional databases.
The book starts with a discussion on concepts. Since Riak is a distributed NoSQL database, it requires developers to approach problems differently than they would with a relational database. The concepts section describes the differences between various NoSQL systems, takes an in-depth look at Riak’s key/value data model, and describes how Riak is designed for high availability (as well as how it handles eventual consistency constraints). After laying the theoretical groundwork, the book walks developers through how to use Riak by explaining the different querying options and showing them how to tinker with settings to meet different use case needs. Finally, it covers the basic details that operators should know, such as how to set up a Riak cluster, configure values, use optional tools, and more.
After finishing the book, start playing around with Riak to see if it’s the right fit for your needs. You can download Riak on our Docs Page.
Be sure and check out “A Little Riak Book.” If you have any questions about Riak, feel free to reach out on the Riak Mailing List, IRC, or Contact Us.
