welcome

Thanks a lot for purchasing the MEAP edition for Machine Learning System Design. Machine Learning System Design is a relatively new term that may get people from the industry puzzled. There’s neither a strictly defined role for a person in charge of the vast scope behind it, nor a clear name for a respective position. The job may be done with varied efficiency by ML Engineers, Software Engineers, or even Data Scientists, depending on a nominal position of a person in charge. And while each of the options is correct in its way, we believe that to become a seasoned expert in machine learning system design, you’ll have to encapsulate expertise from each of those backgrounds.

As ML/AI is a big thing these days, there are a lot of solid books and courses on algorithms, domains, and other specific aspects. However, they do not provide an entire vision, while literature on ML system design is scarce. It leads to the problem we’ve been witnessing in multiple companies, where solid engineers successfully build scattered subcomponents that unfortunately can’t be combined into fully functioning reliable systems.

We decided to contribute to this field and set ourselves a clear goal to share our knowledge and experience that we hope will help our readers convert their knowledge into a holistic system.