March 15, 2023
How many (micro)services do I need?
Microservices, microservices everywhere. But how many of them do we need? It's easy to be trapped by the micro thing and end up with thousands of them. Let's try to provide some guidance.
What's an Outbox and why do we need it? Hint: it's about data integrity
Distributed systems are ugly beasts sometimes. They hide subtle tricks that can lead to data loss and system corruption. The Outbox pattern helps address a couple of them.
The pitfalls of request/response over messaging
Request/response is everywhere. It serves us very well and is a neat solution in many scenarios. It comes with a few pitfalls in distributed systems and needs to be handled with care.
An iPad as a developer box. Pros and cons
Can we use a 10-inch iPad Air as a development device? Let's find out.
What is the deal with security and distributed systems?
Security is a crucial topic for any architect. We cannot implement it as a second thought. We must consider its implications from day one. Distributed systems are no different. However, it might be a little more involved.
Lifehacking 101: One to-do list to rule 'em all
I'm so bad at to-do lists. At the same time, if I don't write things down, I forget everything. So what? It turns out that with a bit of inventiveness, I can make to-do lists mostly work for me.
Autonomy probably doesn't mean what you think it means
There seems to be some misunderstanding around the word 'autonomous' when used in the context of distributed systems. Unfortunately, there is no unique meaning, it depends on the context and the observer's point of view. It might not mean what you think.