Over the past few years, observability has become a prominent topic in distributed computing. Observability means different things to different people and the use of the term is still evolving, but, essentially, observability refers to the practice of using instrumentation to understand software systems in order to derive superior operational…
The Akka Streams API is one of my favourite tools for building reactive, distributed applications. If you are not familiar with it, I published an article on the motivations for using the Akka Streams API, as well as an article on how its powerful semantics address common patterns when streaming…
Most enterprises make extensive use of open-source software. Many are attracted by the price: free. Free from the perspective of some people, anyway. Most enterprises also purchase a lot of commercial software and services. I want to explore how licensing terms often discourage using the software most effectively—encouraging suboptimal…
Kubernetes liveness and readiness probes are mechanisms to improve service reliability and availability. For example, if a container is unresponsive, restarting the container can make the application more available, despite the defect. I have written two articles on how these mechanisms, designed to improve system reliability and availability, can make…
Previously, I wrote an essay describing how Kubernetes liveness and readiness probes can unintentionally reduce service availability, or result in prolonged outages. In the conclusion of that essay, I highlighted Lorin's Conjecture: Once a system reaches a certain level of reliability, most major incidents will involve: A manual intervention that…
This article expands on a keynote that I gave at Reactive Summit 2018. I also discussed these topics on the Real-World Architecture Panel at QCON San Francisco 2018. An operational technology combines hardware and software to monitor and/or control the physical state of a system. Examples include systems used…
Kubernetes liveness and readiness probes can be used to make a service more robust and more resilient, by reducing operational issues and improving the quality of service. However, if these probes are not implemented carefully, they can severely degrade the overall operation of a service, to a point where you…
Services that incorporate streaming workloads often need to perform asynchronous requests to other services, or execute long-running, asynchronous operations. Examples include, inserting time-series data into a database, retrieving metadata for data enrichment, and executing complex business-workflows. Executing asynchronous operations in a streaming context, while maintaining backpressure in the stream, is…
When I was in elementary and secondary school, I did not enjoy reading or writing. Both were a chore. This probably had a lot to do with the fact that the rote learning and clerical curriculum that is core to modern, institutional education, was just not right for me. I…
You have probably had the experience of working tirelessly on a challenging, high-profile, business-critical project, for a significant period of time, chasing the satisfaction of completing the project successfully, only to have it be suddenly finished, completed with very little fanfare, or the gratifying catharsis that you were anticipating. You…
I have never had an internship. In fact, while I was an undergraduate in university, I never even had a summer job related to engineering or software development. I worked at a living-history museum for three summers, giving guided tours, performing artillery demonstrations, and playing bagpipes all day. It was…