You database geeks - you think you have problems with your database’s performance - how’d you like to be the DB admin at MySpace? They went from startup in 2003 to 140 million user accounts in 2007. How’d you like to administer a system that serves 40 billion page views a month (more than Yahoo) from its databases? Here’s a fascinating story of how Jim Benedetto desperately tried to keep up with MySpace’s explosive growth while not breaking the site too often.

Booming traffic demands put a constant stress on the social network’s computing infrastructure. Yet, MySpace developers have repeatedly redesigned the Web site software, database and storage systems in an attempt to keep pace with exploding growth - the site now handles almost 40 billion page views a month. Most corporate Web sites will never have to bear more than a small fraction of the traffic MySpace handles, but anyone seeking to reach the mass market online can learn from its experience.