IT departments and architects are increasingly called on to drive real business value. Frequently architects work hard on delivering the design of a solution, details of an infrastructure, usage of information, and goals and capabilities of an enterprise. During this process, they use frameworks, appropriate tools, and patterns. However, the majority of software, solution, and enterprise architects are constantly challenged in industry to prove the value of architecture to business.
In this presentation, we review how architects can achieve value through both design decisions and strategic involvement. We will discuss the value contribution categories, or roles that architects can play, to make architecture and architects successful. I will focus on sharing techniques and lessons learned from being part of and managing large teams of architects. Ultimately these techniques will enable immediate and long-term impact as we wear the hats of Evangelist, Collaborator, Counselor, and Subject-Matter Expert.
Microservices architecture has emerged as a widely discussed style of building distributed web and internet systems. Proponents argue that this variant of service-oriented architecture (SOA) is well suited to address the challenges of cloud computing, scalability, increased flexibility, and complexity, among others.
But haven’t we seen this all before? Is there really anything new and interesting about microservices architecture? Or is this simply a case of history repeating itself, like the last time SOAs were all the rage?
Microservices architecture is hereby charged with being an attractive nuisance in the first degree. SATURN 2015 has recruited an expert panel of judges to debate the benefits and perils of microservices architecture and help you, the jury, learn the facts and determine the final verdict.
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Join us at this complimentary event to learn about IBM’s newly announced Watson Developer Cloud. Find out how you can leverage a collection of REST APIS and SDKS that use cognitive computing to solve complex problems and build brand-new apps.
Meet the Watson team members and learn about exciting career opportunities!
Space is limited, so please RSVP by April 27.
This session will combine the perspectives of three senior Googlers on what the modern practice of software architecture means for engineers and managers. Jack Greenfield (Senior Staff Software Engineer) will discuss how application modeling, cloud platforms, containers, and management technologies like Google's open source Kubernetes have changed the way we think about software and system architecture. Rick Buskens (Tech Lead/Manager) will reflect on approaches to evolving mission-critical "legacy" systems in large, complex organizations. Jeromy Carriere (Engineering Director) will talk about how managers, sometimes thought to be out of the technical loop, play an increasingly important role in architectural decision making. There will be plenty of time for Q&A.
Current approaches to software delivery require that we think differently about architecture. Old approaches emphasized consistency and standardization, well-considered interactions between components and systems across the enterprise, and centralized control to avoid inefficiencies that would result if different system teams made decisions independently. Increasingly, enterprises are seen as complex adaptive systems in which centralized “omniscient” control is ineffective. New delivery techniques like DevOps, with a focus on lean and agile processes, are a poor fit with the classic architecture approach. By removing stage-gate reviews and trying hard to reduce cycle time, such approaches make it difficult to impose architectural standards on individual projects.
I suggest that we re-think architecture in light of agile and DevOps approaches. At USCIS, we are experimenting with ways of doing this by moving toward more loosely coupled architectures to allow more flexibility at each endpoint. We encourage collaboration across teams on architectural questions so that we can ensure that architectural decisions support all systems with their differing needs without imposing external constraints. We created a team called Architecture and Design Services whose role is to support teams as they evolve architectures, doing research, pilots, reference implementations, and so on. The Architecture and Design Services team exerts subtle standardization control by advising teams on other enterprise needs that they should factor into their designs. These are all intended, in agile spirit, as experiments – we will see what works and try to evolve our new approach to architecture.