This document discusses a new cell-based architecture pattern for building applications. It begins by outlining the objectives and motivation for developing this pattern. It then provides background on existing architecture styles like layered and microservices approaches. The document goes on to define key concepts of the cell-based pattern such as cells, components, and connected cells. It also covers how this pattern addresses concerns like API-centric design, automated governance, developer experience, and more. Examples of reference implementations are presented at different levels of abstraction. Metrics for measuring the success of this approach are suggested. The presentation concludes by inviting consumption and contribution to open source projects implementing the cell-based architecture.

1. INTEGRATION SUMMIT 2019
Emerging Architecture Patterns
API-centric & Cell-based
INTEGRATION
Asanka Abeysinghe
Deputy CTO & VP of Architecture - CTO Office
San Francisco

2. Objectives
#1 why: a new pattern
#2 how: created the pattern
#3 what: is Cell-based architecture

3. Motivation

4. Centralized & Layered
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5. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/69929929@N06/
Powerpoint Architects

6. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnerlandsen/
Reality of the Enterprise

7. Brownfield > Greenfield
picture credit: https://www.apstra.com/home/landscape-of-meadow-field-with-the-changing-environment-2/
Legacy, monolithic Microservices, sprawl

8. Reference Implementations
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9. picture credit: http://unlocked.footlocker.com/
Underutilization of the Technology

10. Gap: architecture | development | deployment
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11. picture credit: https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2017/07/georgia-contractor-sells-farmers-solar-tough-market/
Dependency management

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Architecture Patterns

13. Timeline

14. Background: Layered Architecture

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A platform with an agile team
100 APIs, 60 message flows, 80 services, n DBs
Multi-tenanted, 3 active tenants
First release after 3 years

16. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/imcountingufoz/
Rise of Microservices

17. Pragmatic Microservices
Netflix: APIs
Uber: Edge Gateway
eBay: API Facade
Gartner: Mini Services

18. Background: Layered Architecture with MSA

19. Background: Segmented Architecture
BS-1 BS-2 BS-n
G-1 G-2
US-1 US-n

20. Platform of Platforms
Platform (shared capabilities)
Project1
Project2
Project3
Projectn
Platform (shared capabilities)
Project1
Project2
Project3
Projectn
Platform (shared capabilities)
Project1
Project2
Project3
Projectn
Platform (shared capabilities)
Project1
Project2
Project3
Projectn
CI/CD
User
Store

21. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ableman/

22. Making of……
picture credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Frank_Schulenburg CC BY 3.0

24. Building the
Concept

25. Business vs technical services
picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/arpadlukacs/

26. Service: Technical definition
A code exposes through an
interface that describes a
collection of operations that
are network accessible using
a standardized messaging
protocol.

27. Service: Business definition
Software components that
can be spontaneously
discovered, combined, and
recombined to provide a
solution to a business
problem.

28. Microservice: Technical definition
A microservice must have a
single purpose and be loosely
coupled in design and
deployed independently of
other microservices.
"Micro" is a concept of scope
rather than size.

29. Microservice: Business definition
Microservices is an approach to
application development in
which a large application is built
as a suite of modular
components or services.
These services are built around
business capabilities.

30. Group of (Micro)services

31. The cell is the basic structural,
functional, and
biological unit of all known
living organisms

32. Cell-based Architecture

33. Component: Atomic Units
A component represents a
process or business logic
running in a container,
serverless environment, or an
existing runtime. A component
is designed based on a specific
scope, which can be
independently run and reused
at the runtime.

34. Cell: Units of Enterprise Architecture
A cell is a collection of
components, grouped from
design and implementation
into deployment. A cell is
independently deployable,
manageable, and observable.

35. Cell:Component
1:M
1:1

36. Connected Cells
picture credit: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/

37. Control Plane:
- Signaling of the network
- Makes decisions about the traffic flow
Data Plane:
- Forwards traffic between hops
- Takes data packets
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Management Plane:
- Configure
- Observeabiltty, Monitor

38. Inter and Intra Cell communication
Local-mesh
Global-mesh
DP- data plane
CP- control plane
MP- management plane

39. Connected Cells
Cell gateway (ingress)
Sidecar (egress)
Adaptor (egress)
Ambassador (egress)

40. API-centric Architecture
picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hugh_nelson/

41. API-centric Architecture Pull APIs
- RESTful HTTP, gRPC
Push APIs
- Events JMS, AMQP, SMTP
- Streams Kafka, MQTT

42. Gateway Pattern
picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/

43. Automated Governance (Re)-enables Flow
Policy Store
(Registry)
Observability
(Monitoring/
Analytics)
Policy
Enforcement
(GW)
Automated governance is made
of three things:
A source of truth:
Policy store/registry
Enforcement of the policy
Gateway or plugin attempting to keep
the desired state
Observability
How close to the desired state are we?

44. Security of Cells

45. Developer Experience (DX)
of a Cell

46. Creating Cells
Brand new Cell
Existing (micro)services
Update an existing Cell
Create a new version

48. Lifecycle of a Cell

50. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rincon_de_lula/

51. Structured Agility
Versioned Components
Versioned Cells
Dependency managed
Autowired
Reusable
Enhanced MSA & CNA

52. Cell-based Enterprise
Architecture

54. Cell Types
Cell Type Components
Logic Microservices, Functions, MicroGateways, lightweight storages
Integration MicroESB or other integration microservices, lightweight storage and/or cache
Legacy Existing systems, legacy services
External SaaS and partner systems
Data RDBMS, NoSQL, File, Message Broker*
Identity IDP, user stores
Channel Web Apps, IoT, mobile apps

55. Reference Implementation L0

57. Reference Implementation L1

59. Human-centric Architecture
picture credit: https://www.vertoanalytics.com/human-vs-data-centric-marketing/

60. Cells and Podular (cellular) Organizations

61. Measure the success
picture credit: https://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/direct-marketing/running-a-direct-mail-campaign/getting-the-measure-of-your-marketing

62. https://www.tasktop.com/blog/5-best-metrics-youve-never-met/
https://dzone.com/articles/reducing-mttr
Mean Time to Repair

63. Self-contained
Deployable as a unit
Independently elastic
Data, control & management plane
Summary: Cell-based Architecture

64. Contribution: walk the talk
picture credit: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/06/microsoft-buying-github

65. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/
Invitation to consume and contribute
https://github.com/wso2/reference-architecture
https://github.com/wso2/reference-methodology
https://ballerina.io
https://cellery.io

67. INTEGRATION SUMMIT 2019
THANK YOU
wso2.com
@asankama
asankaa AT WSO2.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/asankaabeysinghe/