When architecting an application, you need to choose between the traditional monolithic architecture, or the more fashionable microservices architecture consisting of many smaller services. But rather than blindly picking the familiar or the fashionable, it’s important to remember what Fred Books said almost 30 years ago: there are no silver bullets in software. Every architectural decision has both benefits and drawbacks. Whether the benefits of one approach outweigh the drawbacks greatly depends upon the context of your particular project. Moreover, even if you adopt the microservices architecture, you must still make numerous other design decisions, each with their own trade-offs. A software pattern is an ideal way of describing a solution to a problem in a given context along with its tradeoffs. In this presentation, we describe a pattern language for microservices. You will learn about patterns that will help you decide when and how to use microservices vs. a monolithic architecture. We will also describe patterns that solve various problems in a microservice architecture including inter-service communication, service registration and service discovery.

1. @crichardson
A pattern language for
microservices
Chris Richardson
Founder of Eventuate.io
Founder of the original CloudFoundry.com
Author of POJOs in Action
@crichardson
chris@chrisrichardson.net
http://microservices.io
http://eventuate.io
http://plainoldobjects.com

2. @crichardson
Presentation goal
Why patterns and pattern
languages?
A pattern language for
microservices

3. @crichardson
About Chris

4. @crichardson
About Chris
Consultant and trainer
focusing on modern
application architectures
including microservices
(http://www.chrisrichardson.net/)

5. @crichardson
About Chris
Founder of a startup that is creating
a platform that makes it easier for
developers to write transactional
microservices
(http://eventuate.io)

6. @crichardson
For more information
http://learnmicroservices.io

7. @crichardson

8. @crichardson
Agenda
Why a pattern language for microservices?
An overview of the microservices pattern language

9. @crichardson
In 1986…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Brooks

10. @crichardson
Yet almost 30 years later
developers are still
passionately arguing over
“silver bullets”

11. @crichardson
Today’s silver bullets

12. @crichardson
Human beings are emotional
Decide
using
emotions
Rationalize with
our intellect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahout

13. @crichardson
Gartner Hype Cycle
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Hype-Cycle-General.png
It’s
awesome
It’s not
awesome
Trade-offs
understood

14. @crichardson
We need a better way
to discuss and think
about technology

15. @crichardson
What’s a pattern?
Reusable solution
to a problem
occurring
in a particular context

16. @crichardson
The structure of a pattern
=
Great framework for discussing
and thinking about technology

17. @crichardson
The structure of a pattern
Resulting context
aka the situation
Name
Context
Problem
Related patterns
(conflicting) issues
etc to address
Forces
Solution

18. @crichardson
Resulting context
Benefits
Drawbacks
Issues to resolve

19. @crichardson
Related patterns
Alternative solutions
Solutions to problems
introduced by this pattern

20. Pattern language
A collection of related
patterns that solve problems
in a particular domain
Relationships
Pattern A results in a
context that has a problem
solved by Pattern B
Patterns A and B solve the
same problem
Pattern A is a
specialization of pattern B
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pattern_Language
Access to Water
Promenade
Local townhall
Intimacy gradient
Light on two sides

21. @crichardson
Meta-pattern: Use the pattern
format to describe technology
Problem: How to talk/reason about technology?
Solution: Use the pattern format
Benefit: More objective
Drawback: Less exciting
Context: Emotional software development culture
Related patterns: It’s awesome!

22. @crichardson
Agenda
Why a pattern language for microservices?
An overview of the microservices pattern language

23. @crichardson
Microservices pattern language
http://microservices.io/

24. @crichardson
How to architect your
application?

25. @crichardson
How to deploy your
application?

26. @crichardson
How do services
communicate?

27. @crichardson
How does a service know
another’s network location

28. @crichardson
How do an application’s clients
communicate with the services?

29. @crichardson
How to simplify the
development of services?

30. @crichardson
What is the database
architecture?

31. @crichardson
How to maintain data
consistency across services?

32. @crichardson
Summary: Patterns and pattern
languages are a great way to …
Think about technology
Discuss technology
Apply technology

33. @crichardson
Summary: The Microservices pattern
language is a great way to …
Think about microservices
Discuss microservices
Apply microservices (or not)

34. @crichardson
@crichardson chris@chrisrichardson.net
http://learnmicroservices.io
Questions?