Newsletter #7 – April 2021

Software Architecture Newsletter #7 – April 2021

 

Software Architecture Newsletter #7

Welcome to the 7th edition of the Software Architecture Newsletter!

In  this edition – Azure Percept, Dapr becomes v1, Looking beyond JSON, is it the end of Silicon Valley and more…

As usual, if you found something interesting that you think should be included here, you’re interested in a sponsorship, or you have something to say about the content of this newsletter – drop me a mail at memi@memilavi.com

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Architecture                                           

Dapr becomes v1  – Dapr, the open source distributed application runtime, has reached its v1 milestone. Dapr provides a lot of services for the distributed application developers, such as state management, pub/sub, binding and triggers, and lots more.
Dapr uses a sidecar architecture (similar to popular Service Mesh implementations) so that there isn’t a strong coupling between the services and the Dapr component.
If you’re working on a distributed application – I highly recommend taking a look a Dapr.
Read the announcement here 

Microservices from the Trenches – By now, we all know that: 1) Microservices are all the rage right now, and 2) it’s far from being a silver bullet. There are a lot of tradeoffs when going for Microservices, and a lot of considerations to be taken into account.
InfoQ hosted a panel about Microservices lessons, benefits, challenges and mistakes, with some senior engineers and architects, who shared their experiences and lessons learned when implementing Microservices-based system.
Recommended reading for anyone who’s working with, or planning to work with Microservices.
Read it all here.

Looking beyond JSON – If you haven’t been living under a rock in the recent, say 15 years, you probably know what is JSON. We’ve got accustomed to this lightweight, easy to read, string-based protocol, and fell in love with it so much, that we sometimes forget there are actually quite interesting alternatives to it.
This article  in DZone looks back at JSON and it roots, and outlines some of these alternatives, and how they compare to it. 

Ideas                               
The End of Silicon Valley as We Know It? – Silicon Valley is the high-tech capital of the world. No argument here. But is it coming to an end? The last year saw some substantial developments in the software industry. We saw many high-profile companies leaving Silicon Valley (Oracle, HPE, Elon Musk to name a few), COVID-19 taught us we don’t have to actually live near the company’s HQ in order to work in it, and housing costs in the area are still sky-rocketing.
All these let Tim O’Reilly, from the O’Reilly fame, to write a piece about whether this is the end of Silicon Valley as we know it. In this piece, O’Reilly argues that there are four trends that will shape the future of Silicon Valley, and that companies there must understand and embrace them.
Read this excellent piece here.

Cloud                                           

Azure Percept – On March 2, the opening day of the Ignite conference, Microsoft launched Azure Percept. Percept allows integration of edge devices, such as cameras, sensors, etc. with AI services such as Video Analytics and more, to allow processing at the edge device instead of the backend servers.
Percept provides a complete framework for integrating the devices with the various Azure AI services, and can help in making your edge system more robust and seamless.
Read about it here.

Introduction to FinOps – What the main goal in moving to the cloud? Most CIOs will go with “saving costs”. A sound premise, but one that is not always true, definitely not over time.
FinOps is the methodology of making sure your cloud costs are actually optimized, and that you’re not going to pay for things you don’t actually need.
This article provides great intro to FinOps and how to embrace it in your cloud deployment.

Dev & DevOps                                                

The year ahead in DevOps and agile – We all love DevOps. OK, not all of us. But we all want to love DevOps. And agile. The promise in fully automated testing and deployment, from the developer’s IDE to the production server is the holy grail of every development organization.
However, we’re not there yet.
There are many tools, methodologies, and ideas around DevOps and agile, but we’re not yet where we really want to be.
In this article, Joe McKendrick reviews the current state of DevOps and agile, and what are the developments we should expect in the coming year. 

Progressive Web Apps in 2021 – Progressive Web Apps were all the rage just 2-3 years ago, and companies went head over heels for creating PWAs from their websites and apps. 
However, in recent years it looks like the trend reversed, and we see less and less talks about PWAs.
There are various reasons for that, for example – Apple’s reservations about PWA, but the promise is still there.
This DZone article reviews the current state of PWAs, why they struggle, and what should happen in order to bring them back on track.

Discussions                                           

Tracking large file loading – We all had to deal with loading files requirements in some of our apps. Usually, the loading part is easy. The problem is lying mainly in the user feedback. An interesting discussion broke up in our Facebook Group regarding how to provide effective user feedback when loading large file, without “freezing” the page. Abhijeet Pawar described the situation he needs to deal with, and asked for advice. He definitely got some very interesting ideas.
Want to read them? Want to contribute your own? Do it here.

Spring Sale!                                                            
Spring is coming!
And as nature is blooming around us, so is our software architecture and cloud knowledge.
We’re running now a special Spring Sale, in which you can grab ALL my Software Architecture- and Cloud-related courses for prices as low as 9.99$.
Click here for direct link to the discounted courses:

The Complete Guide to Becoming a Software Architect

Microservices Architecture – The Complete Guide

Software Architecture Case Studies

REST API Design – The Complete Guide

Software Architecture Security – The Complete Guide

Microsoft Azure: From Zero to Hero – The Complete Guide

Getting your dream job – The Complete Guide

Note: The sale ends in 3 days, and quantity is limited, so act fast!

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So, that was the seventh edition of the Software Architecture Newsletter (temp name).
I hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to suggest and comment on it, simply by replying to this mail.
Also, if you created a unique content you think can be included here – drop me a note!
Looking forward for your feedback!

Cheers,

Memi

 

This newsletter is brought to you by Memi Lavi, Senior Software & Cloud Architect
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