A Decentralized Reference Architecture for Cloud-Native Applications

The number of microservices running in enterprises increases daily. As a result, service composition, governance, security, and observability are becoming a challenge to implement and incorporate. A “cell-based” architecture is an approach that can be applied to current or desired development and technologies to address these issues. This technology-neutral approach helps cloud-native dev teams become more efficient, act in a more self-organized manner, and speed overall release times.

Transcript

1. Asanka Abeysinghe Cell-based Architectur e Decentralized Architecture Pattern for Cloud-native Applications Chief Technology Evangelist (former Deputy CTO) WSO2 Inc.
2. 2019 1997 2003 Architect 2012 VP Solutions Architecture 2001 2008 Director Solutions Architecture Deputy CTO Open Source Distributed Computing Programmer COBOL OLE, OLE 2 COM, COM + DCO M CORBA Java Developer J2E E MMS 286-DX4 Eventin g FI X HL7 CONNECT-health Global architecture tea m 500+ customer s Champions program Chief Architect 2005 QS P A R Trusted advocate Game hacker C++ programmer Age-16 Hedge fund tools Ref. Architectur e Ref. Methodolog y Evangelize 2018 Middleware Developer/Architect Entrepreneur Chief Technology Evangelist 2020 Connecting humans & technolog y Architecting the transformation
3. Objectives #1 why: a new patter n #2 how: created the patter n #3 what: is Cell-based architecture
4. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/
5. Motivation
6. Centralized & Layered picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaktuslampa/
7. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/69929929@N06/ Powerpoint Architects
8. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnerlandsen/ Reality of the Enterprise
9. Brownfield > Greenfield picture credit: https://www.apstra.com/home/landscape-of-meadow-field-with-the-changing-environment-2/ Legacy, monolithic Microservices, sprawl
10. Reference Implementations picture credit: https://www.marinersmuseum.org/
11. picture credit: http://unlocked.footlocker.com/ Underutilization of the Technology
12. Gap: architecture | development | deployment picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/28994379@N02/
13. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tiocfaidh_ar_la_1916/ Architecture Patterns
14. Timeline
15. Background: Layered Architecture
16. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23119666@N03/ A platform with an agile team 100 APIs, 60 message flows, 80 services, n DB s Multi-tenanted, 3 active tenants First release after 3 years
17. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/imcountingufoz/ Rise of Microservices
18. Pragmatic Microservices Netflix: APIs Uber: Edge Gateway eBay: API Facade Gartner: Mini Services
19. Business vs technical services picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/arpadlukacs/
20. Service: Technical definition A code exposes through an interface that describes a collection of operations that are network accessible using a standardized messaging protocol.
21. Service: Business definition Software components that can be spontaneously discovered, combined, and recombined to provide a solution to a business problem.
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. Background: Layered Architecture with MSA
25. Background: Segmented Architecture BS-1 BS-2 BS-n G-1 G-2 US-1 US-n
26. Platform of Platforms Platform (shared capabilities) Project Project 2 Project 3 Project n Platform (shared capabilities) Project Project 2 Project 3 Project n Platform (shared capabilities) Project Project 2 Project 3 Project n Platform (shared capabilities) Project Project 2 Project 3 Project n CI/CD User Store
27. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ableman/
28. Building the Concept
29. The cell is the basic structural, functional, and biological unit of all known living organisms
30. Cell-based Architecture
31. 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.
32. 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.
33. Group of (Micro)services
34. Cell:Componen t 1: M 1:1
35. Connected Cells picture credit: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
36. Control Plane: - Signaling of the networ k - Makes decisions about the traffic flow Data Plane: - Forwards traffic between hop s - Takes data packets picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/teflon/ Management Plane: - Configure - Observeabiltty, Monitor
37. Inter and Intra Cell communication Local-mesh Global-mesh DP- data plan e CP- control plan e MP- management plane
38. Connected Cells Cell gateway (ingress ) Sidecar (egress) Adaptor (egress) Ambassador (egress)
39. API-first Architecture picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hugh_nelson/
40. API-first Architecture Pull API s - RESTful HTTP, gRPC Push API s - Events JMS, AMQP, SMTP - Streams Kafka, MQTT
41. Automated Governance (Re)-enables Flow Policy Stor e (Registry) Observabilit y (Monitoring/
 Analytics) Policy 
 Enforcemen t (GW ) Automated governance is made of three things : A source of truth : Policy store/registr y Enforcement of the polic y Gateway or plugin attempting to keep the desired stat e Observability How close to the desired state are we?
42. Security of Cells
43. Developer Experience (DX) of a Cell
44. Creating Cells Brand new Cell Existing (micro)service s Update an existing Cel l Create a new version
46. Lifecycle of a Cell
48. Structured Agility Versioned Components Versioned Cell s Dependency manage d Autowired Reusable Enhanced MSA & CNA
49. Cell-based Enterprise Architecture
51. 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
52. Reference Implementation L0
54. Reference Implementation L1
56. Human-centric Architecture picture credit: https://www.vertoanalytics.com/human-vs-data-centric-marketing/
57. Cells and Cellular Organizations https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/06/29/the-cellular-enterprise/
58. Defining Cell boundaries The design of systems has always required an approach to the clustering of functionality, and it remains an open Computer Science problem - so don't expect a definitive answer ! The number of component-component connections within a cell should be higher than the number that crosses the cell boundary . Other approaches such as Domain-driven Design (DDD) may help, but fundamentally the cell model is there to provide team boundaries . Hence the size of a cell should be based on the size, responsibility, and output of a team - and the size and output of a team based on team concepts . Cell-based architecture aims to create business focussed architectural constructs that can reuse at a higher level, so naturally organizing the teams and cells around business functions is essential .
59. Measure the success picture credit: https://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/direct-marketing/running-a-direct-mail-campaign/getting-the-measure-of-your-marketing
60. https://www.tasktop.com/blog/5-best-metrics-youve-never-met/ https://dzone.com/articles/reducing-mttr Mean Time to Repair
61. Self-containe d Units of enterprise architectur e Independently elasti c Local data & control plane Summary: Cell
62. Decentralized, MSA, Cloud-nativ e Technology neutral Human-centri c APIs as products Summary: Cell-based Architecture
63. Contribution: walk the talk picture credit: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/06/microsoft-buying-github
64. 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 http://wso2.com http://cellery.io
65. Abc Let’s connect #architect2architect https://blog.architect2architect.com