Follow-Up
Software Trends Report: What to Watch for in 2023 πΌ
As we just wrapped up the 2022, it is good to get back and get an overview of the trends of the last year and see what we can expect in future. In this post at InfoQ they mention the use of ADRs, importance of Senior IC role and the emerge of Platform teams. They also highlight that you would rather treat platforms and data as products and handle those accordingly. As regarding the software architecture I've invited Uwe Friedrechsen for an hour long interview, so book your calendars!
#architecture #review
How to autoscale your SaaS application Infrastructure π·ββοΈ
RedHat has a series on SaaS Architecture Checklist. Recently they shared Chapter 9 which is about autoscaling the infrastructure. Michael Hrivnak explains how autoscaling can be configured using Cluster API, Cluster Autoscaler and Horizontal Pod Autoscaler so that your SaaS resources are truly elastic.
#kubernetes #saas #autoscaling #scalability
Must Read Free Kubernetes Books πΌ
Speaking of Kubernetes, take a look at the set of free books which help you to study Kubernetes itself, it's performance and security. The set also includes books on integration patterns and designing distributed systems.
#kata #books
Solution Architecture Kata Example π·ββοΈ
One of the books I recommended in this post, was "Fundamentals of Software Architecture" by Neil Ford. He also knows as a promoter of "Architecture Kata" exercise and he shows an example of a task for such activity in the aforementioned book. What I want to share with you is solving a problem to that particular Kata in this post on Medium. It includes understanding the context and iterating over the design versions. Take a look.
#architecture #kata
Document your event-driven architecture πΌ
In a loosely coupled, event-driven architecture we still want to know What events/messages is a particular service producing, what events/messages can I consume from the service, what is the message schema and more. This short article shows the 3 ways how you can document the answers to those questions.
#documentation #eda
Metrics for quality πΌ
When you introduce any metric for your software project, team or whatever else, you will always find out that the metric stops being useful due to Goodhart's law. So if you need to optimize your product for quality, what do you do? Well, if you study the quality itself, you will find out the outer, inner and process quality parts. The article though does not answer what metrics to pick - just how to think about the quality itself.
#quality #qa
Like the newsletter? Wanna receive new content earlier, than everybody else? Consider helping to run it at Patreon or Boosty. The funds go to pay for the hosting and some software like a Camo Studio license. Patrons and Boosty subscribers of a certain level also get access to a private Architecture Community and of course every supporter gets early access. Big thanks to Nikita, Anatoly, Oleksandr, Dima, Pavel B, Pavel, Robert, Roman, Iyri, Andrey, Lidia, Vladimir, August and Roman for already supporting the newsletter. Join them as well!
Software Trends Report: What to Watch for in 2023 πΌ
As we just wrapped up the 2022, it is good to get back and get an overview of the trends of the last year and see what we can expect in future. In this post at InfoQ they mention the use of ADRs, importance of Senior IC role and the emerge of Platform teams. They also highlight that you would rather treat platforms and data as products and handle those accordingly. As regarding the software architecture I've invited Uwe Friedrechsen for an hour long interview, so book your calendars!
#architecture #review
How to autoscale your SaaS application Infrastructure π·ββοΈ
RedHat has a series on SaaS Architecture Checklist. Recently they shared Chapter 9 which is about autoscaling the infrastructure. Michael Hrivnak explains how autoscaling can be configured using Cluster API, Cluster Autoscaler and Horizontal Pod Autoscaler so that your SaaS resources are truly elastic.
#kubernetes #saas #autoscaling #scalability
Must Read Free Kubernetes Books πΌ
Speaking of Kubernetes, take a look at the set of free books which help you to study Kubernetes itself, it's performance and security. The set also includes books on integration patterns and designing distributed systems.
#kata #books
Solution Architecture Kata Example π·ββοΈ
One of the books I recommended in this post, was "Fundamentals of Software Architecture" by Neil Ford. He also knows as a promoter of "Architecture Kata" exercise and he shows an example of a task for such activity in the aforementioned book. What I want to share with you is solving a problem to that particular Kata in this post on Medium. It includes understanding the context and iterating over the design versions. Take a look.
#architecture #kata
Document your event-driven architecture πΌ
In a loosely coupled, event-driven architecture we still want to know What events/messages is a particular service producing, what events/messages can I consume from the service, what is the message schema and more. This short article shows the 3 ways how you can document the answers to those questions.
#documentation #eda
Metrics for quality πΌ
When you introduce any metric for your software project, team or whatever else, you will always find out that the metric stops being useful due to Goodhart's law. So if you need to optimize your product for quality, what do you do? Well, if you study the quality itself, you will find out the outer, inner and process quality parts. The article though does not answer what metrics to pick - just how to think about the quality itself.
#quality #qa
Like the newsletter? Wanna receive new content earlier, than everybody else? Consider helping to run it at Patreon or Boosty. The funds go to pay for the hosting and some software like a Camo Studio license. Patrons and Boosty subscribers of a certain level also get access to a private Architecture Community and of course every supporter gets early access. Big thanks to Nikita, Anatoly, Oleksandr, Dima, Pavel B, Pavel, Robert, Roman, Iyri, Andrey, Lidia, Vladimir, August and Roman for already supporting the newsletter. Join them as well!
InfoQ
InfoQ Software Trends Report: Major Trends in 2022 and What to Watch for in 2023
2022 was another year of significant technological innovations and trends in the software industry and communities. The InfoQ podcast co-hosts met last month to discuss the major trends from 2022, and what to watch for in 2023. This article is a summary ofβ¦
π4π₯1
Time for the announcements! Fasten your seat belts π
1. Software Architecture in 2022 Review with Uwe Friedrechsen happens on Feb, 6, 2023 at 2 PM GMT+2. Broadcast here.
2. Where do microservies go? Interview with Andrey Rebrov about do we go back to a monolith or lambda, what technologies support the microservies and what an ideal ms looks like.
Feb, 9, 2023 at 4 PM GMT+2. Broadcast here.
Make sure to subscribe and click the notify button π
1. Software Architecture in 2022 Review with Uwe Friedrechsen happens on Feb, 6, 2023 at 2 PM GMT+2. Broadcast here.
2. Where do microservies go? Interview with Andrey Rebrov about do we go back to a monolith or lambda, what technologies support the microservies and what an ideal ms looks like.
Feb, 9, 2023 at 4 PM GMT+2. Broadcast here.
Make sure to subscribe and click the notify button π
YouTube
Architecture in 2022 in Review with Uwe Friedrechsen
I am interviewing a Software Architect and frequent speaker Uwe Friedrechsen on where we find ourselves with Platform Teams, Services Meshes, Observability, Testing for Distributed Systems and many more!
Release It! Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software:β¦
Release It! Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software:β¦
π₯8
Architecture Weekly #54 - Highlights
Video
MySQL vs PostgreSQL π·ββοΈ
When you ask yourself what relational database you want to pick for a new project, you would probably name MS SQL, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and maybe some more. How would you compare the choices? You definitely want to see the data types support, indexing, performance, replication, support for transactions and isolation levels and more. Today I am sharing a good comparison between MySQL and PostgreSQL which includes all of the above. The article also shows that migration is currently in favour of PostgreSQL. Check out the link to understand why.
#mysql #postgresql #database #comparison
Gentle introduction to DDD πΌ
I touched on the Domain-Driven Design topic several times in both the newsletter and the blog itself. If you're new to a topic, want to refresh your knowledge or are just not sold whether you need to read a book, find a lengthy article on the introduction to DDD, which basically covers the content of "Learning the DDD" by Vlad Khononov briefly. But what's good about it - it has a healthy dose of funny memes which improves the reading experience significantly.
#ddd
Asynchronous computing at Meta π·ββοΈ
Meta has tons of data, and they prefer to handle their workloads asynchronously, so they built their own ordering queueing system called FOQS(wonder, what it says) and employed a component called Dispatcher that would manage the ingestion into it. Although it was working fine, the team noted that the Dispatcher incorporated too much of responsibility for consumption, rate limiting, routing the workload and many more. So they decided to improve the async layer architecture and they shared how they did it and why. I understand the problems they face like retries with streams, delays, etc but like really? Why do you reinvent the already existing streaming solutions? Maybe you will find the answers in the article.
#architecture #casestudy #queue
Video
MySQL vs PostgreSQL π·ββοΈ
When you ask yourself what relational database you want to pick for a new project, you would probably name MS SQL, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and maybe some more. How would you compare the choices? You definitely want to see the data types support, indexing, performance, replication, support for transactions and isolation levels and more. Today I am sharing a good comparison between MySQL and PostgreSQL which includes all of the above. The article also shows that migration is currently in favour of PostgreSQL. Check out the link to understand why.
#mysql #postgresql #database #comparison
Gentle introduction to DDD πΌ
I touched on the Domain-Driven Design topic several times in both the newsletter and the blog itself. If you're new to a topic, want to refresh your knowledge or are just not sold whether you need to read a book, find a lengthy article on the introduction to DDD, which basically covers the content of "Learning the DDD" by Vlad Khononov briefly. But what's good about it - it has a healthy dose of funny memes which improves the reading experience significantly.
#ddd
Asynchronous computing at Meta π·ββοΈ
Meta has tons of data, and they prefer to handle their workloads asynchronously, so they built their own ordering queueing system called FOQS(wonder, what it says) and employed a component called Dispatcher that would manage the ingestion into it. Although it was working fine, the team noted that the Dispatcher incorporated too much of responsibility for consumption, rate limiting, routing the workload and many more. So they decided to improve the async layer architecture and they shared how they did it and why. I understand the problems they face like retries with streams, delays, etc but like really? Why do you reinvent the already existing streaming solutions? Maybe you will find the answers in the article.
#architecture #casestudy #queue
YouTube
MySQL vs PostgreSQL, Gentle Intro to DDD and Async compute at Meta in Architecture Weekly #54
What's better - MySQL or PostgreSQL?
How to enter gently into Domain-Driven Design?
How async computation platform changed over time at Meta?
All of that and some more in the architecture weekly #54!
Text version of the issue: https://vvsevolodovich.β¦
How to enter gently into Domain-Driven Design?
How async computation platform changed over time at Meta?
All of that and some more in the architecture weekly #54!
Text version of the issue: https://vvsevolodovich.β¦
π₯2π1
Architecture Weekly #54 - Follow-Up
Unlocking the power of service mesh π·ββοΈ
The service mesh is an idea of adding the features, common to all the microservices not through libraries, but by runtime components running alongside the actual services. But with all the traffic management, routing and security features meshes bring, the complexity of those solutions grows as fast. Please find a 5-part series of articles on the services meshes which guides you through the introduction to service meshes, names a few examples, and demonstrates their internal architecture and working principles.
#servicemesh #patterns
List of books for software design πΌ
Learning and mastering software design comes not only with practice, but also knowing the theory. Grab an article with 8 books you might appreciate to build better applications and more robust systems.
#systemdesign #books
A short note on idempotency π·ββοΈ
Exactly once is a holy grail of events-based systems. You possibly can not have this in general, but you can help the issue if your event handling is idempotent: receiving the event the second time won't affect the state of the system. Get a short note of the explanation.
#idempotency
Actor model explained π·ββοΈ
Find another short note, this time - on the actors. Basically, the author tells the story of transitioning from the arbitrary procedure-style way of implementing a synchronization lock to an actor-based implementation, where you send the events from several computing instances in an async manner and letting another instance handle them thus removing the performance constraints. More details inside π
#async #patterns
Critique of the Spotify Model πΌ
And the last one for today is about team organization which is frequently part of an architect's job as well. You might have heard about Spotify's model with autonomous cross-functional teams and people misunderstanding the principles of those. Grab 2 articles on why it's important to have aligned autonomy, TechRadar, support for Golden Path and more!
Unlocking the power of service mesh π·ββοΈ
The service mesh is an idea of adding the features, common to all the microservices not through libraries, but by runtime components running alongside the actual services. But with all the traffic management, routing and security features meshes bring, the complexity of those solutions grows as fast. Please find a 5-part series of articles on the services meshes which guides you through the introduction to service meshes, names a few examples, and demonstrates their internal architecture and working principles.
#servicemesh #patterns
List of books for software design πΌ
Learning and mastering software design comes not only with practice, but also knowing the theory. Grab an article with 8 books you might appreciate to build better applications and more robust systems.
#systemdesign #books
A short note on idempotency π·ββοΈ
Exactly once is a holy grail of events-based systems. You possibly can not have this in general, but you can help the issue if your event handling is idempotent: receiving the event the second time won't affect the state of the system. Get a short note of the explanation.
#idempotency
Actor model explained π·ββοΈ
Find another short note, this time - on the actors. Basically, the author tells the story of transitioning from the arbitrary procedure-style way of implementing a synchronization lock to an actor-based implementation, where you send the events from several computing instances in an async manner and letting another instance handle them thus removing the performance constraints. More details inside π
#async #patterns
Critique of the Spotify Model πΌ
And the last one for today is about team organization which is frequently part of an architect's job as well. You might have heard about Spotify's model with autonomous cross-functional teams and people misunderstanding the principles of those. Grab 2 articles on why it's important to have aligned autonomy, TechRadar, support for Golden Path and more!
π5
Today I am interviewing Andrey Rebrov - a co-founder & CTO at Scentbird - about microservices. How we came to them, what are the microservices problems, what's the ideal size of a microservice and where do we go with them. Join the broadcast at 4 PM GMT+2! Make sure to attend, as the recording will be taken private for a couple of weeks
https://youtube.com/live/PboH8FFqq5c
https://youtube.com/live/PboH8FFqq5c
YouTube
Where do microservices go - lambdas or back to monolith?
We came to microservices through an evolution of deployment and operation from the one hand side, and through splitting up the responsibility from the other hand side. Where we will go next though? To the distributed monolith? Or to lambdas? What technologiesβ¦
π₯5π1
Architecture Weekly #55
I will publish the video for this issue tomorrow. However, last week I conducted not 1, but 2 interviews. The first one is with Uwe Friedrechsen, where I ask him about where software architecture is going in 2023. The second one is where Andrey Rebrov, a CTO from ScentBird, tells us about the microservices, where we go with them, how to pick the right size for a microservice and how they transitioned from a Grails monolith to Java microservices. Both videos are available for Patrons and Boosty subscribers.
Highlights
Breaking up a Monolith by Khan Academy π·ββοΈ
The question "How to do you transition from a monolith to microservices?" is very real. And fortunate you are, Khan Academy just completed a project of migrating from a Python 2 monolith to a set of Go microservices across the timespan of 3,5 years. Such projects are challenging from so many perspectives: how do you start? Do you apply Agile practices or handle the project as a waterfall one? How do you make the transition: per feature, per domain, per function? How to retain people over this timespan? Khan Academy shared what went well, and what choices they would reconsider. A very insightful article by Gergely Orosz.
#microservices #refactoring #casestudy
How to fix a $1 Million Query π·ββοΈ
Shopify decided to use BigQuery as its Data Warehouse solution. They had to process the data of their customers. But once they estimated the cost of a single query type running for their volumes for a month, they got a walloping value of approx 1 million dollars. That definitely rang a bell, so the engineers went to find a way to optimize that. It appears that a where clause and a cluster feature of BigQuery led them to the solution. Check out which one.
#bigquery #cloud #gcp
Is software getting worse? πΌ
And the last highlight for today is a post in StackOverflow blog on the software getting worse meaning it's heavy, slow and buggy. Ryan Donovan argues that's wrong to blame the programmers: they really want to make fast, compact software; but the market just does not care! The very interesting business reasoning inside.
I will publish the video for this issue tomorrow. However, last week I conducted not 1, but 2 interviews. The first one is with Uwe Friedrechsen, where I ask him about where software architecture is going in 2023. The second one is where Andrey Rebrov, a CTO from ScentBird, tells us about the microservices, where we go with them, how to pick the right size for a microservice and how they transitioned from a Grails monolith to Java microservices. Both videos are available for Patrons and Boosty subscribers.
Highlights
Breaking up a Monolith by Khan Academy π·ββοΈ
The question "How to do you transition from a monolith to microservices?" is very real. And fortunate you are, Khan Academy just completed a project of migrating from a Python 2 monolith to a set of Go microservices across the timespan of 3,5 years. Such projects are challenging from so many perspectives: how do you start? Do you apply Agile practices or handle the project as a waterfall one? How do you make the transition: per feature, per domain, per function? How to retain people over this timespan? Khan Academy shared what went well, and what choices they would reconsider. A very insightful article by Gergely Orosz.
#microservices #refactoring #casestudy
How to fix a $1 Million Query π·ββοΈ
Shopify decided to use BigQuery as its Data Warehouse solution. They had to process the data of their customers. But once they estimated the cost of a single query type running for their volumes for a month, they got a walloping value of approx 1 million dollars. That definitely rang a bell, so the engineers went to find a way to optimize that. It appears that a where clause and a cluster feature of BigQuery led them to the solution. Check out which one.
#bigquery #cloud #gcp
Is software getting worse? πΌ
And the last highlight for today is a post in StackOverflow blog on the software getting worse meaning it's heavy, slow and buggy. Ryan Donovan argues that's wrong to blame the programmers: they really want to make fast, compact software; but the market just does not care! The very interesting business reasoning inside.
Patreon
Get more from Vladimir Ivanov on Patreon
ΡΠΎΠ·Π΄Π°ΡΡ Architecture Weekly Newsletter
π₯1
Architecture Weekly #55 - Follow-Up
Investing Wisely in Architecture Through Refactoring πΌ
Simon Brown said that industry was transitioning from big upfront design to no design at all. The same might happen at an application level: investing in the design too much makes it a bit overengineered; once you learn you will start doing less designing until you find the right balance. J. B. Rainsberger reason this tendency and finds that it is an essential part of learning. You can't predict if you're overdesigning or under-designing, but that's not an issue if you can get out of it via refactoring. And exactly at this point, you might need the architecture patterns.
#architecture #refactoring
Kubernetes Patterns e-book π·ββοΈ
Speaking about the patterns, RedHat just shared an online book published with O'Reilly on the patterns. So you will find foundation patterns like declarative deployment and managed lifecycle, behavioural patterns like batch and periodic jobs, and structural patterns like sidecard and adapter and many more inside.
#patterns #k8s #kubernetes
Designing modern frontend app architecture π·ββοΈ
So you decide you want a new big frontend application - maybe you're building something from scratch, or you're rewriting an old big ball of mud into something more appropriate. How would you approach the front-end architecture? What quality attributes do you need to take into account? Find a well-structured and illustrated article on what you should be aware of to build a good solution.
#architecture #frontend
Modern Cloud for Multiplayer Games π·ββοΈ
I am a personal fan of StarCraft 2 - an online RTS game. But as a software architect I always wondered how you design such a system given the requirement of synchronization of the game data between multiple players simultaneously supporting low latency requirements. This week I stumbled upon an article which digs into the technical challenges of multiplayer games and explains how they can be solved within a cloud environment.
#architecture #gaming #multiplayer
Raft visualized π€
Raft is a distributed consensus algorithm. They are typically hard to comprehend, and that's the reason good visualization can be highly valuable. Grab one for Raft and go step by step through the concepts of consensus, leader, follower, leader elections and other related stuff.
#distributedsystem #consensus #raft
Using AI for system design and diagram creation π·ββοΈ
Talks about ChatGPT are all over the internet right now. Some people use them for writing cover letters, some create manuals, and some even suggest building YouTube video scenarios with it. Software architects though are experimenting with building system design with it. Find a receipt for formulating the data model and sequence diagrams for a wealth management system using ChatGPT below.
#systemdesign #ai #chatgpt
Like the newsletter? Wanna receive new content earlier, than everybody else? Consider helping to run it at Patreon or Boosty. The funds go to pay for the hosting and some software like a Camo Studio license. Patrons and Boosty subscribers of a certain level also get access to a private Architecture Community and of course every supporter gets early access. Big thanks to Nikita, Anatoly, Oleksandr, Dima, Pavel B, Pavel, Robert, Roman, Iyri, Andrey, Lidia, Vladimir, August and Roman for already supporting the newsletter. Join them as well!
Investing Wisely in Architecture Through Refactoring πΌ
Simon Brown said that industry was transitioning from big upfront design to no design at all. The same might happen at an application level: investing in the design too much makes it a bit overengineered; once you learn you will start doing less designing until you find the right balance. J. B. Rainsberger reason this tendency and finds that it is an essential part of learning. You can't predict if you're overdesigning or under-designing, but that's not an issue if you can get out of it via refactoring. And exactly at this point, you might need the architecture patterns.
#architecture #refactoring
Kubernetes Patterns e-book π·ββοΈ
Speaking about the patterns, RedHat just shared an online book published with O'Reilly on the patterns. So you will find foundation patterns like declarative deployment and managed lifecycle, behavioural patterns like batch and periodic jobs, and structural patterns like sidecard and adapter and many more inside.
#patterns #k8s #kubernetes
Designing modern frontend app architecture π·ββοΈ
So you decide you want a new big frontend application - maybe you're building something from scratch, or you're rewriting an old big ball of mud into something more appropriate. How would you approach the front-end architecture? What quality attributes do you need to take into account? Find a well-structured and illustrated article on what you should be aware of to build a good solution.
#architecture #frontend
Modern Cloud for Multiplayer Games π·ββοΈ
I am a personal fan of StarCraft 2 - an online RTS game. But as a software architect I always wondered how you design such a system given the requirement of synchronization of the game data between multiple players simultaneously supporting low latency requirements. This week I stumbled upon an article which digs into the technical challenges of multiplayer games and explains how they can be solved within a cloud environment.
#architecture #gaming #multiplayer
Raft visualized π€
Raft is a distributed consensus algorithm. They are typically hard to comprehend, and that's the reason good visualization can be highly valuable. Grab one for Raft and go step by step through the concepts of consensus, leader, follower, leader elections and other related stuff.
#distributedsystem #consensus #raft
Using AI for system design and diagram creation π·ββοΈ
Talks about ChatGPT are all over the internet right now. Some people use them for writing cover letters, some create manuals, and some even suggest building YouTube video scenarios with it. Software architects though are experimenting with building system design with it. Find a receipt for formulating the data model and sequence diagrams for a wealth management system using ChatGPT below.
#systemdesign #ai #chatgpt
Like the newsletter? Wanna receive new content earlier, than everybody else? Consider helping to run it at Patreon or Boosty. The funds go to pay for the hosting and some software like a Camo Studio license. Patrons and Boosty subscribers of a certain level also get access to a private Architecture Community and of course every supporter gets early access. Big thanks to Nikita, Anatoly, Oleksandr, Dima, Pavel B, Pavel, Robert, Roman, Iyri, Andrey, Lidia, Vladimir, August and Roman for already supporting the newsletter. Join them as well!
Thecodewhisperer
Investing Wisely in Architecture Through Refactoring
The stronger your refactoring skill, the more easily you can use architecture advice as guidelines instead of as rules to enforce. This makes it significantly more likely that you'll invest wisely in architecture, rather than over- or under-βengineer.
π4
Recorded a new video - this time on task delegation. Tried to make it fun, tell me if I managed to do so π https://youtu.be/_Ca9zHMT8AA
YouTube
Delegation done right. Teach, inspire and control the result.
The majority of people are afraid of delegating tasks. But if you follow the video you'll know how to choose a proper person for a task and what to do to ensure the result
Telegram channel: https://t.me/architectureweekly
Patreon: https://www.patreon.coβ¦
Telegram channel: https://t.me/architectureweekly
Patreon: https://www.patreon.coβ¦
π€1π
1
Architecture Weekly #56 Highlights
Will my cloud bill go up with looser coupling? π·ββοΈ
Coupling is considered a bad thing, so architects usually try to decrease it for better flexibility and maintainability. But what about the cost of infrastructure? Gregor Hohpe picks up an example of a Lambda function writing data to DynamoDB and sending an event to EventBridge to see if moving the event handling to DynamoDB streams will increase the cost. But the main point of the article is in its end: whatever the infrastructure increase would be, you will probably save a couple of orders of magnitude in value brought by your programmers.
#architecture #cloud #cost
Big Data is Dead πΌ
Big Data was on the hype for over a decade. The reason for that was the expectation of the neverending growth of data and the growth of the companies handling this data. But it turns out that really large volumes are only handled by a handful of companies, and even for them the workloads are much less than the total amount of data. What does that mean for you? Find out in the article below.
#bigdata
Distributed Reset π€
Last time we shared a visualization of Raft consensus protocol. But it is a relatively recent development. But the problems of distributed systems are much older. For example, we had a problem of distributed reset: setting a default value for all the nodes in the system. The original paper was written in 1994, but this week Jesse Jiryu Davis wrote a review for it. The basic idea is close to the Deijksta path search algorithm with the difference that here we need to traverse all the nodes in DAG. Grab the details inside.
#distributedsystem
Will my cloud bill go up with looser coupling? π·ββοΈ
Coupling is considered a bad thing, so architects usually try to decrease it for better flexibility and maintainability. But what about the cost of infrastructure? Gregor Hohpe picks up an example of a Lambda function writing data to DynamoDB and sending an event to EventBridge to see if moving the event handling to DynamoDB streams will increase the cost. But the main point of the article is in its end: whatever the infrastructure increase would be, you will probably save a couple of orders of magnitude in value brought by your programmers.
#architecture #cloud #cost
Big Data is Dead πΌ
Big Data was on the hype for over a decade. The reason for that was the expectation of the neverending growth of data and the growth of the companies handling this data. But it turns out that really large volumes are only handled by a handful of companies, and even for them the workloads are much less than the total amount of data. What does that mean for you? Find out in the article below.
#bigdata
Distributed Reset π€
Last time we shared a visualization of Raft consensus protocol. But it is a relatively recent development. But the problems of distributed systems are much older. For example, we had a problem of distributed reset: setting a default value for all the nodes in the system. The original paper was written in 1994, but this week Jesse Jiryu Davis wrote a review for it. The basic idea is close to the Deijksta path search algorithm with the difference that here we need to traverse all the nodes in DAG. Grab the details inside.
#distributedsystem
The Architect Elevator
I made everything loosely coupled. Will my cloud bill go up?
Loose coupling is an essential property of fine-grained, event-driven systems. However, cloud resources that decouple event producers and consumers incur a run-time cost. How to weigh the trade-offs?
π3
Architecture Weekly #56 Follow-Up
Evolution of a React application π·ββοΈ
React is usually perceived as a framework, but it's rather a library for building UI. And the application architecture is still up to you. Juntao QIU from ThoughtWorks wrote an article in Martin Fowler's blog on how you can evolve your frontend application which uses React from a single component to a sophisticated multilayer application. Grab a great read.
#frontend #react #architecture
How the Istio Service Mesh became the Critical Infrastructure for CN apps π·ββοΈ
We spoke about service meshes in previous articles; this time I would like to share an article which covers the history of evolution from plain Kubernetes systems to using Services Meshes and the place of Istio there. The article also covers the evolution of proxies from locally configurable to cloud-native solutions at scale.
#servicemesh #istio #cloudnative
DevOps Roadmap πΌ
It's impossible to imagine a high performing organization without DevOps practices nowadays. So you might end up in situation where you need to hire SREs and other relevant specialist or grow them inside the company. The roadmap I found on the internet does a good job depicting the areas of expertise required nowadays from git and programming languages to Clouds, CI/CD and Monitoring and Observability.
#devops
Guide to Projections and Read Models in Event-Driven Architecture
With event sourcing, you typically have a fixation of facts or event happened in the system. However, we frequently need to understand the current state. Projections can help to build up this state from the recorded events. Oskar Dudycz shares the explanations of what exactly projections are in his event-driven architecture blog.
#eventdriven
Postgres WAL Files and Sequence Numbers π€
WAL files are used for the recovery and replication purposes. But if you need to dig deep into some issue, you might find useful the understanding of the WAL files naming conventions, log sequence numbers and segment positions. This is why I am sharing an article by Crunchy Data with you.
#postgresql #db #wal
Reference Architecture and Implementation for Deployment Pipelines π·ββοΈ
If you ever needed to build a deployment pipeline, you know how many details are there. Last week AWS published the reference architecture for the deployment pipeline and InfoQ blog has a nice article covering them. Find out how you can build a pipeline using AWS tools and services and how to follow the best practices.
Like the newsletter? Wanna receive new content earlier, than everybody else? Consider helping to run it at Patreon or Boosty. The funds go to pay for the hosting and some software like a Camo Studio license. Patrons and Boosty subscribers of a certain level also get access to a private Architecture Community and of course every supporter gets early access. Big thanks to Nikita, Anatoly, Oleksandr, Dima, Pavel B, Pavel, Robert, Roman, Iyri, Andrey, Lidia, Vladimir, August and Roman for already supporting the newsletter. Join them as well!
Evolution of a React application π·ββοΈ
React is usually perceived as a framework, but it's rather a library for building UI. And the application architecture is still up to you. Juntao QIU from ThoughtWorks wrote an article in Martin Fowler's blog on how you can evolve your frontend application which uses React from a single component to a sophisticated multilayer application. Grab a great read.
#frontend #react #architecture
How the Istio Service Mesh became the Critical Infrastructure for CN apps π·ββοΈ
We spoke about service meshes in previous articles; this time I would like to share an article which covers the history of evolution from plain Kubernetes systems to using Services Meshes and the place of Istio there. The article also covers the evolution of proxies from locally configurable to cloud-native solutions at scale.
#servicemesh #istio #cloudnative
DevOps Roadmap πΌ
It's impossible to imagine a high performing organization without DevOps practices nowadays. So you might end up in situation where you need to hire SREs and other relevant specialist or grow them inside the company. The roadmap I found on the internet does a good job depicting the areas of expertise required nowadays from git and programming languages to Clouds, CI/CD and Monitoring and Observability.
#devops
Guide to Projections and Read Models in Event-Driven Architecture
With event sourcing, you typically have a fixation of facts or event happened in the system. However, we frequently need to understand the current state. Projections can help to build up this state from the recorded events. Oskar Dudycz shares the explanations of what exactly projections are in his event-driven architecture blog.
#eventdriven
Postgres WAL Files and Sequence Numbers π€
WAL files are used for the recovery and replication purposes. But if you need to dig deep into some issue, you might find useful the understanding of the WAL files naming conventions, log sequence numbers and segment positions. This is why I am sharing an article by Crunchy Data with you.
#postgresql #db #wal
Reference Architecture and Implementation for Deployment Pipelines π·ββοΈ
If you ever needed to build a deployment pipeline, you know how many details are there. Last week AWS published the reference architecture for the deployment pipeline and InfoQ blog has a nice article covering them. Find out how you can build a pipeline using AWS tools and services and how to follow the best practices.
Like the newsletter? Wanna receive new content earlier, than everybody else? Consider helping to run it at Patreon or Boosty. The funds go to pay for the hosting and some software like a Camo Studio license. Patrons and Boosty subscribers of a certain level also get access to a private Architecture Community and of course every supporter gets early access. Big thanks to Nikita, Anatoly, Oleksandr, Dima, Pavel B, Pavel, Robert, Roman, Iyri, Andrey, Lidia, Vladimir, August and Roman for already supporting the newsletter. Join them as well!
martinfowler.com
Modularizing React Applications with Established UI Patterns
Learn how to apply established UI patterns for a more organized and maintainable codebase and discover the benefits of layering architecture in React development
π3β€1
Good news, everyone! Artem Zinatullin agreed to an interview about build systems and what a software architect or staff engineer should know about them. Join this Monday at 6 PM EET. While you wait, the video with Uwe Friedrechsen became publicly available here.
YouTube
Build systems
With Artem Zinatullin we are talking about Build Systems and what an Architect or a Staff Engineer should know about them. We are touching different systems from Makefile to Gradle and Bazel.
The proper stream is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5qLNIFsywQ
The proper stream is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5qLNIFsywQ
π₯6
Architecture Weekly
Good news, everyone! Artem Zinatullin agreed to an interview about build systems and what a software architect or staff engineer should know about them. Join this Monday at 6 PM EET. While you wait, the video with Uwe Friedrechsen became publicly availableβ¦
Artem didn't join, will reschedule
π’10
Architecture Weekly
Artem didn't join, will reschedule
New stream today 6 PM EET(GMT+2)! Same time, but today π
https://youtube.com/live/I5qLNIFsywQ?feature=share
https://youtube.com/live/I5qLNIFsywQ?feature=share
YouTube
Software Build systems
With Artem Zinatullin we are talking about Software Build Systems and what an Architect or a Staff Engineer should know about them. We are touching different systems from Makefile to Gradle and Bazel.
Fundamental issues of Gradle Build System: https://aβ¦
Fundamental issues of Gradle Build System: https://aβ¦
π₯2
Video of "Where do Microservices go?" with Andrey Rebrove is publicly available!
https://youtube.com/live/PboH8FFqq5c
https://youtube.com/live/PboH8FFqq5c
YouTube
Where do microservices go - lambdas or back to monolith?
We came to microservices through an evolution of deployment and operation from the one hand side, and through splitting up the responsibility from the other hand side. Where we will go next though? To the distributed monolith? Or to lambdas? What technologiesβ¦
Time for the new announcement! What should Engineering Manager know about Software Architecture with @MagdaMiu
March, 7th. 10 AM. GMT+2(EET)
https://youtube.com/live/4jjcU9JD6Pc?feature=share
March, 7th. 10 AM. GMT+2(EET)
https://youtube.com/live/4jjcU9JD6Pc?feature=share
YouTube
What should Engineering Manager know about Software Architecture with Magda Miu
There are different controversial opinions on what Engineering Manager should do. Should they code? Should they make system design? What should EMs know about Software Architecture? In this session we are going to figure that out with Magda Miu - a GDE andβ¦
Architecture Weekly #57 Highlights
Bitwarden design flaw π€
After LastPass breach, the alternatives left to the public are 1Password and Bitwarden. And looking at the latter, it is not perfect indeed. The problems include issues with low number of PBKDF2 - significantly lower than OWASP recommends - along with the fact that in case of the breach those iterations does not mean anything, as the attackers will try to decrypt the data right away, instead of guessing the master key hash. Are there any products without that problem? How to design that properly? Find in the article!
#security
Architecture Modernization Teams πΌ
The software architecture is not wine by no stretch of the imagination: it only becomes worse with time. Although organization typically recognize it, they still struggle with modernization of solutions architecture. One of the ways to resolve this struggle is a creation of an Enabling team for architecture modernization. The goals of this team includes upskilling the people, keeping the architecture momentum and facilitation of better design. Grab a long read on when to introduce AMET, how it's work looks like when you don't need that team anymore.
#architecture #strategy
Fixing Go's Linker: ARM64, DWARF and linker internals π€
I know, not really an architecture topic, but exciting read. So Uber's team discovered they can't debug the Golang binaries for ARM64, while the AMD64 binaries are debuggable perfectly fine. So they decided to figure out what is the issue. They discovered that due to the usage of a smaller type for function references, the linked inserts additional jumps making the functions external; thus breaking the adding of the debug symbols. The fix is a one-liner; but the journey!...
#go #compiler #investigation
Bitwarden design flaw π€
After LastPass breach, the alternatives left to the public are 1Password and Bitwarden. And looking at the latter, it is not perfect indeed. The problems include issues with low number of PBKDF2 - significantly lower than OWASP recommends - along with the fact that in case of the breach those iterations does not mean anything, as the attackers will try to decrypt the data right away, instead of guessing the master key hash. Are there any products without that problem? How to design that properly? Find in the article!
#security
Architecture Modernization Teams πΌ
The software architecture is not wine by no stretch of the imagination: it only becomes worse with time. Although organization typically recognize it, they still struggle with modernization of solutions architecture. One of the ways to resolve this struggle is a creation of an Enabling team for architecture modernization. The goals of this team includes upskilling the people, keeping the architecture momentum and facilitation of better design. Grab a long read on when to introduce AMET, how it's work looks like when you don't need that team anymore.
#architecture #strategy
Fixing Go's Linker: ARM64, DWARF and linker internals π€
I know, not really an architecture topic, but exciting read. So Uber's team discovered they can't debug the Golang binaries for ARM64, while the AMD64 binaries are debuggable perfectly fine. So they decided to figure out what is the issue. They discovered that due to the usage of a smaller type for function references, the linked inserts additional jumps making the functions external; thus breaking the adding of the debug symbols. The fix is a one-liner; but the journey!...
#go #compiler #investigation
Almost Secure
Bitwarden design flaw: Server side iterations
Bitwarden is a hot candidate for a LastPass replacement. Looking into how they encrypt data, it doesnβt do things that much better however.
π1π₯1
Architecture Weekly #57 Follow-Up
Multitask learning at LinkedIn π·ββοΈ
When you have several learning tasks that are somehow similar, it makes sense to leverage multitask learning to increase performance and quality of learning. However, with such an approach new difficulties emerge like a different set of features for tasks, different input datasets etc. LinkedIn shared a post explaining how they handle those issues with their multitask learning framework.
#ml
Types of CQRS π·ββοΈ
When you learn about CQRS, you typically think binary: either you have one, or you don't. Vladimir Khorikov reasons about CQRS in a gradual manner: you can indeed have no CQRS, but then you can have stage 1, 2 and three. Read the article to know the difference and when you need to apply a particular stage.
#cqrs #patterns #architecture
Scalable Annotation Service at Netflix π·ββοΈ
Netflix wanted to store the annotations - some metadata - for any objects of theirs: from whole movies to particular timeframes. They wanted to do that in a unified, performant and scalable fashion. So they created Marken. Read how they employed Cassandra and ElasticSearch to accomplish the goal.
#netflix #microservices #architecture #casestudy
Consumer IoT Device Cybersecurity Standards and Policies πΌ
As you know, "S" in IoT stands for Security. That's why it is so mandatory to bring some clarity to the field and introduce some standardization. Please find a report on the policies, certifications and standartization procedures in different parts of the Globe in IoT field.
#security #iot
Software Build Systems πΌ
This week I took an interview with Artem Zinnatullin about Software Build Systems. We discussed what you should expect from a good build system - performance, scalability, learning curve - and what you, as an architect of a software architect, should know about them. We also covered the evolution of build systems from Ant to Bazel and speculated about their future.
#interview #video #buildsystem
ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web πΌ
Did you know that Xerox copying machines are not doing the direct copy? Instead they scan the document, analyze it, compress and then decompress for printing. ChatGPT is simingly doing the same - analyzing and compressing the data from the web and giving us it's own - and blurry - image of the web. But what we prefer better?
#ai
Multitask learning at LinkedIn π·ββοΈ
When you have several learning tasks that are somehow similar, it makes sense to leverage multitask learning to increase performance and quality of learning. However, with such an approach new difficulties emerge like a different set of features for tasks, different input datasets etc. LinkedIn shared a post explaining how they handle those issues with their multitask learning framework.
#ml
Types of CQRS π·ββοΈ
When you learn about CQRS, you typically think binary: either you have one, or you don't. Vladimir Khorikov reasons about CQRS in a gradual manner: you can indeed have no CQRS, but then you can have stage 1, 2 and three. Read the article to know the difference and when you need to apply a particular stage.
#cqrs #patterns #architecture
Scalable Annotation Service at Netflix π·ββοΈ
Netflix wanted to store the annotations - some metadata - for any objects of theirs: from whole movies to particular timeframes. They wanted to do that in a unified, performant and scalable fashion. So they created Marken. Read how they employed Cassandra and ElasticSearch to accomplish the goal.
#netflix #microservices #architecture #casestudy
Consumer IoT Device Cybersecurity Standards and Policies πΌ
As you know, "S" in IoT stands for Security. That's why it is so mandatory to bring some clarity to the field and introduce some standardization. Please find a report on the policies, certifications and standartization procedures in different parts of the Globe in IoT field.
#security #iot
Software Build Systems πΌ
This week I took an interview with Artem Zinnatullin about Software Build Systems. We discussed what you should expect from a good build system - performance, scalability, learning curve - and what you, as an architect of a software architect, should know about them. We also covered the evolution of build systems from Ant to Bazel and speculated about their future.
#interview #video #buildsystem
ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG of the Web πΌ
Did you know that Xerox copying machines are not doing the direct copy? Instead they scan the document, analyze it, compress and then decompress for printing. ChatGPT is simingly doing the same - analyzing and compressing the data from the web and giving us it's own - and blurry - image of the web. But what we prefer better?
#ai
Linkedin
Applying multitask learning to AI models at LinkedIn
π4