70022-97016-97017 | Faculty of Engineering | Imperial College London Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to section menu Skip to sidebar menu View accessibility support page Imperial College London Imperial College London Imperial Alert Coronavirus (COVID-19) updates: Safety information for academic year 2021-22 Latest information for current students, staff, offer holders and applicants Main Navigation Study Close Study overview Undergraduate Top Links Courses for 2023 Courses for 2022 How to apply Fees and funding Accommodation Open days, events and visits Undergraduate Study Guide Postgraduate Top Links Courses for 2022-23 Doctoral courses How to apply Fees and funding Accommodation Events and visits Study guide Faculties and departments Education centres and schools Continuing Professional Development Executive Education Living in LondonLondon’s fusion of culture, charm and career opportunities is hard to beat International studentsStudents come from over 140 different countries to study at Imperial Campus lifeExperience what it's like to be a member of the College community Research & Innovation Close Research and Innovation Partner with us At a glance Clinical Trials Business support and partnerships Consultancy Executive education A-Z services for partners Research support At a glance Resources for staff Research Office Faculty research services teams Research integrity Clinical Trials Global Imperial College Strategy 2015-2020 Faculties and departments A-Z research groups and centres Funding opportunities REF 2021 Imperial’s impactRead case studies about how Imperial research has made a difference Research newsKeep up to date with Imperial’s cutting edge discoveries EnterpriseLearn how we support entrepreneurship and help find research-driven solutions to industry challenges Be Inspired Close Be Inspired Take part Top links Schools Outreach What's on at Imperial Festival Imperial Lates Alumni events Volunteering and outreach Engage online Top links Imperial news Podcasts Imperial Magazine Imperial Stories Social media directory Staff and student volunteering Imperial magazine Societal engagement Imperial College Podcastpresented by Gareth Mitchell and the Communications & Public Affairs pod squad Imperial TodaySubscribe to our daily newsletter and receive the best stories from Imperial direct to your inbox Student blogsFind out about life on campus from our team of student bloggers About Close About The College Overview Strategy 2020-2025 Academic Strategy League tables Facts and figures College governance Sustainability Our people At a glance President Provost Alumni stories Award winners Recognising our people Equality, diversity and inclusion A - Z of Faculties and Departments Faculty of Engineering Faculty of Medicine Faculty of Natural Sciences Imperial College Business School Global ImperialWe are the UK's most international university Our campusesExplore our London locations White City CampusImperial’s research and innovation district News What's on News Give A-Z Close Faculties and departments Multidisciplinary networks, centres and institutes Research groups People finder Administration and support services Information for Close Prospective students Current students Alumni Staff Jobs at Imperial Partners and business Media Donors Parents Conference organisers Search Imperial Search Department of Computing Section Navigation Close Department of Computing Overview About Getting here Our values Our facilities Useful contacts Equality and Diversity Equality, Diversity and Culture Committee Women in Computing Athena SWAN Resources Vacancies News and events Health and safety Qualified first aiders Training requirements Theft Students Welcome Information Awards and honours People Academic staff Welcome to new academics Teaching fellows Research staff Administrative staff CSG Recent changes New users Students Lab regulations Staff and PhDs Services Guides Remote Access Facilities Loans Lab Workstations Theatres Help desk Policies Activities CSG Systems Activities Information Systems Activities Honorary staff Emeritus staff DeepMind scholarships Alumnus Research Artificial Intelligence Data Science Programming Languages Security Software Engineering Systems Theory and Algorithms Analysis and Verification Visual Computing Research groups listed alphabetically Prospective students Welcome Undergraduate courses BEng/MEng Computing BEng/MEng Joint Mathematics and Computer Science Postgraduate courses MSc Computing MSc Computing Science regulations MSc Advanced Computing MSc Advanced Computing regulations MSc in Artificial Intelligence MSc Artificial Intelligence regulations MSc Specialist Degrees MSc in Computing (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) MSc in Computing (Management and Finance) MSc in Computing (Security and Reliability) MSc in Computing (Software Engineering) MSc in Computing (Visual Computing and Robotics) MSc in Computing (Specialisms) regulations Integrated MRes/PhD Degrees MRes Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning PhD FAQs Scholarships HiPEDS Centre for Doctoral Training PhD success stories PhD application guidelines AI4Health Centre for Doctoral Training Open days and taster courses COVID-19 Updates Scholarships and Bursaries Current students Undergraduate Computing: degree and course information Undergraduate degrees UG handbook Undergraduate JMC: degree and course information JMC undergraduate degrees UG handbook Postgraduate degrees and course information PG handbook PhD information PhD diary Facewall PhD 1st Year - Cohort 2020 / 2021 Undergraduate student welfare Exams & Mitigating Circumstances DoC student hub Scholarships and Bursaries Industry Recruit our Students Industrial placements Corporate Partnership Programme Industrial Advisory Board Membership Terms of reference Applications of Computing in Industry Prizes and sponsorship Consultancy Collaborations Outreach and Engagement Girls in Computing DoC Explains Ethics in Computing Coding for Children Bring your child to work day Outreach news and events Public Lecture Series Computing in Schools STEM Club Training Beyond the Classroom This is Engineering CSG Recent changes New users Students Lab regulations Staff and PhDs Services Guides Remote Access Facilities Loans Lab Workstations Theatres Help desk Policies Activities CSG Systems Activities Information Systems Activities Staff intranet Health and safety Qualified first aiders Training requirements Theft Students Welcome Information Home Faculty of Engineering Departments, institutes and centres Department of Computing Current students Courses 70022-97016-97017 70022-97016-97017 Scalable Systems and Data Module aims In this module you will have the opportunity to: get an overview of data centre technologies, the infrastructure needed to run a variety of workloads, and the design decisions when engineering scalable distributed applications. analyze the full system stack for managing and scheduling data-centre resources discuss the design principles for scalable systems investigate concepts and techniques to build large scale systems, with a focus on distributed storage, coordination, computation and resource allocation. get an overview of NewSQL and NoSQL technologies understand new data models, their associated query languages and systems discuss new storage technology and its impact on query execution and data management systems in general. Learning outcomes Define the requirements and challenges when architecting, building and managing a large-scale data-centre infrastructure with distributed systems Know the design principles of modern technologies, encompassing the software stack that manages the data-centre resources and be able to critically assess them Use the theoretical foundations from distributed algorithms to define the building blocks for scalable system design in relation to distributed storage, coordination and computation. Critically assess the trade-offs between different requirements when designing scalable distributed systems Discuss, compare and criticise the proposed approaches presented in state-of-the-art research papers targeting distributed systems Get a basic understanding of NewSQL and NoSQL technolgies driven by new data models Understand the trade-offs in converting between data models and database tools Understand the implications of new hardware (storage class memory, SSD, main memory and multicores) on database management systems Module syllabus The course consists of mandatory reading of key (recently published) research papers related to aspects of scalable distributed systems design. Overview of scalable distributed system design (goals and example systems, deployment environments, and challenges). Overview of data-centres, their technologies and the link to cloud computing and introduction to latest technologies encompassing rack-scale computing Hardware virtualization (full and para virtualization, virtualization of different resources, security)/OS virtualization (containers and serverless computing) Design scalable services and applications (reference architectures, requirements and design priniciples for highly performant and fault tolerant systems) Distributed Storage (CAP theorem, Consitency-types (strong, weak, eventual, etc.)) Distributed Coordination (consensus protocols, and use-cases) Distributed Computation (data-flow and graph processing models) Managing distributed resources (resource management and allocation, cluster schedulers) NoSQL and NewSQL; Overview of the new data management landscape Key/Value Store and their successor extensible record stores Document stores; schema free: shifting the complexity from ETL to querying New storage media; relative (random) access cost on disk compared to main memory/SSD Main memory databases; transactions in main memory; random access in main memory Flash/SSD databases; reading and writing (block erase); relative cost; wear levelling in write access; potentially outlook to phase change memory Transactions on multicores; CPU cache hierarchy; multi-socket architecture; (workload driven) data placement. Teaching methods The material will be taught through a mix of traditional lectures, tutorials and in-class discussions of state-of-the-art technologies, systems and publications. Assessments There will be four courseworks that contribute 20% of the marks for the module. There will be final written exam, which counts for the remaining 80% of the marks. Written feedback will be given on the assessed courseworks, approximately 14 days after submission. Reading list Module leaders Dr Thomas Heinis Professor Peter Pietzuch Current students Undergraduate Computing: degree and course information Undergraduate degrees UG handbook Undergraduate JMC: degree and course information JMC undergraduate degrees UG handbook Postgraduate degrees and course information PG handbook PhD information PhD diary Facewall PhD 1st Year - Cohort 2020 / 2021 Undergraduate student welfare Exams & Mitigating Circumstances DoC student hub Scholarships and Bursaries @ICComputing Tweets by ICComputing Print Email Contact & Links Section Information Faculty of Engineering Department of Computing Imperial College London South Kensington Campus London SW7 2AZMap Get in touch Useful contacts UG admissions enquiries MSc admissions enquiries PhD admissions enquiries Quick links Job opportunities Recruit our students Outreach Computing Support Group (CSG) FollowTwitterLinked in Useful Links Information for Prospective students Alumni Jobs Partners and business Media Donors Parents Conference organisers Top links Visit Imperial Imperial and the EU Outlook 365 web access Contact the ICT Service Desk Library Blackboard Move Imperial Term dates Students Imperial students Imperial College Union Student Hub Careers Service Imperial Mobile Graduation Staff Staff main page ICIS HR Procedures Salaries Pension schemes Research support Information for new staff Imperial partners Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre Imperial College Health Partners Imperial Consultants A-Z Faculties, departments and institutes Research groups Administration and support services People finder College Information Imperial College London Address South Kensington Campus London SW7 2AZ, UK tel: +44 (0)20 7589 5111 Campuses & maps Follow Imperial Facebook Twitter You Tube Linked in Instagram Weibo Site Information Sitemap Accessibility Modern slavery statement Privacy notice Use of cookies Report incorrect content © 2022 Imperial College London Log in
