Reliability with Erlang

In the previous issue, the author disclosed the concurrency features of Erlang, a programming language created at Ericsson more than 20 years ago for implementing telecommunications systems with stringent reliability, distribution, and uptime requirements. In this paper, the author explains that Erlang´s concurrency primitives provide more than just a fast way to create threads. They also enable parts of an application to monitor other parts - even if they´re running on separate hosts across the network - and restart those other parts should they fail. Erlang´s libraries and frameworks take advantage of these capabilities to let developers build systems with extreme availability and reliability.