September 2026
Intermediate to advanced
796 pages
24h 26m
English
book
Site Reliability Engineering, 2nd Edition
by Betsy Beyer, Chris Jones, Christof Leng, David Huska, Jennifer Petoff, Niall Richard Murphy
Content preview from Site Reliability Engineering, 2nd Edition
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Chapter 1. Introduction: Modeling What We Do and Why
No matter how feature-rich a software product is, it is ultimately useless to the user if it is down, unusably slow, or inaccurate. To solve this fundamental problem and ensure businesses can reliably deliver their services, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) has evolved into a broad industry movement. But what exactly is SRE?
Note
The term SRE can be used to describe the field as a whole (Site Reliability Engineering), the individual doing the job (Site Reliability Engineer), and the team that individual is part of (the SRE team). Please keep this context in mind as you read the book. While most of the time in this chapter SRE refers to the field, there are cases where we are talking about individuals and teams.
At first glance, the name may seem a bit odd, but each word has a deeper meaning—and together, they give a pretty good high-level description of what SRE is about:
- Site: The why
-
The first word in the name may be the most confusing one. It is much easier to understand when you know the origins of SRE. When the SRE function was established at Google in 2003, its mission was straightforward: “Keep the site (google.com) up.” Today, of course, the role of SRE teams across the industry is much more nuanced. But the core value remains: a direct connection to business impact. Enabling users to use the company’s products and services is why SRE exists. The dedication to the user is at ...
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I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.