Mark Richards

Independent Software Architect, Author of Fundamentals of Software Architecture

Mark Richards

Mark Richards is an experienced, hands-on software architect involved in the architecture, design, and implementation of microservices architectures, service-oriented architectures, and distributed systems. He has been in the software industry since 1983 and has significant experience and expertise in application, integration, and enterprise architecture. Mark is the founder of DeveloperToArchitect.com, a website devoted to helping developers in the journey to software architect. He is the author of numerous technical books and videos, including the recently published Fundamentals of Software Architecture, Microservices AntiPatterns and Pitfalls, Microservices vs. SOA, the Software Architecture Fundamentals video series, The Enterprise Messaging video series, Java Message Service, 2nd Edition, and contributing author to 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know. Mark has a master’s degree in computer science and is a regular conference speaker at the No Fluff Just Stuff (NFJS) Symposium Series. He has spoken at hundreds of conferences and user groups around the world on a variety of enterprise-related technical topics.

Presentations

Archived

Monday, 9:00 AM EST

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Archived

Tuesday, 8:30 AM EST

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Microservices and Distributed Data

Tuesday, 10:30 AM EST

Jorge Santayana is famous for saying “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. When SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) was all the craze, everyone got all excited about services, but forgot about the data. This ended in disaster. History repeats itself, and here we are with Microservices, where everyone is all excited about services, but once again, forgets all about the data. In this session I will discuss some of the challenges associated with breaking apart monolithic databases, and then show the techniques for effectively creating data domains and how to split apart a database. I consider the data part of Microservices the hardest aspect of this architecture style. In the end, it's all about the data.

Agenda

  • Data distribution challenges and considerations
  • Creating data domains
  • Data and service granularity
  • Handling common data tables
  • Managing distributed transactions

Microservices Caching Strategies

Tuesday, 1:30 PM EST

Have you ever wondered how to share data between microservices? Have you ever wondered how to share a single database schema between hundreds (or even thousands) of microservices (cloud or on-prem)? Have you ever wondered how to version relational database changes when sharing data in a microservices environment? If any of these questions intrigue you, then you should come to this session. In this session I will describe and demonstrate various caching strategies and patterns that you can use in Microservices to significantly increase performance, manage common data in a highly distributed architecture, and even manage data synchronization from cloud-based microservices. I'll describe the differences between a distributed and replicated cache, Using live coding and demos using Hazelcast and Apache Ignite, I'll demonstrate how to share data and also how to do space-based microservices, leveraging caching to its fullest extent.

Agenda:

  • Caching Topologies
  • Sharing Data Between Microservices
  • Space-Based Microservices and Caching
  • Calculating Data Collisions

Archived

Tuesday, 3:15 PM EST

In 250BC Rome began its expansion into Carthage, and later into the divided kingdoms of Alexander, starting the rise of a great empire until its decline starting around 350AD. Much can be learned from the rise and fall of the Roman Empire as it relates to a similar rise and fall: Microservices. Wait. Did I say “fall of microservices”? Over the past 5+ years Microservices has been on the forefront of most books, articles, and company initiatives. While some companies been experiencing success with microservices, most companies have been experiencing pain, cost overruns, and failed initiatives trying to design and implement this incredibly complex architecture style. In this session I discuss and demonstrate why microservices is so vitally important to businesses, and also why companies are starting to question whether microservices is the right solution. Sir Issac Newton once quoted “What goes up must come down”; Blood, Sweat & Tears sang about this in their hit “Spinning Wheel”. Microservices is no exception. Come to this provocative session to learn about the real challenges and issues associated with microservices, how we might be able to overcome some of the technical (and business) challenges, and whether microservices is really the answer to our problems.

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Archived

Tuesday, 5:00 PM EST

Software architecture is hard. It is full of tradeoff analysis, decision making, technical expertise, and leadership, making it more of an art than a science. The common answer to any architecture-related question is “it depends”. To that end, I firmly believe there are no “best practices” in software architecture because every situation is different, which is why I titled this talk “Essential Practices”: those practices companies and architects are using to achieve success in architecture. In this session I explore in detail the top 6 essential software architectural practices (both technical architecture and process-related practices) that will make you an effective and successful software architect.

This session is broken up into 2 parts: those essential architecture practices that relate to the technical aspects of an architecture (hard skills), and those that relate to the process-related aspects of software architecture (soft skills). Both parts are needed to make architecture a success.

The Art of Problem Solving

Tuesday, 8:30 PM EST

As Tech Leaders, we are presented with problems and work to find a way to solve them, usually through technology. In my opinion this is what makes this industry so much fun. Let's face it - we all love challenges. Sometimes, however, the problems we have to solve are hard - really hard. So how do you go about solving really hard problems? That's what this session is about - Heuristics, the art of problem solving. In this session you will learn how to approach problems and also learn techniques for solving them effectively. So put on your thinking cap and get ready to solve some easy, fun, and hard problems.

Agenda:

  • the checklist
  • visual representations
  • you know what happens when you assume…
  • you gotta start somewhere
  • the world is flat
  • hey! keep it clean!
  • perception can be reality

Archived

Wednesday, 9:00 AM EST

Whether starting a new greenfield application or analyzing the vitality of an existing application, one of the decisions an architect must make is which architecture style to use (or to refactor to). Microservices? Service-Based? Microkernel? Pipeline? Layered? Space-Based? Event-Driven? SOA?. Having the right architecture style in place is essential to the success of any application, big or small. Come to this fast-paced session to learn how to analyze your requirements and domain to make the right choice about which architecture style is right for your situation.

Agenda

  • Architecture Style Classification
  • Common Architecture Styles
  • Domain to Architecture Isomorphism
  • Case Studies: Selecting an Architecture Style

Applying Reactive Architecture Patterns

Wednesday, 11:00 AM EST

Reactive architecture patterns allow you to build self-monitoring, self-scaling, self-growing, and self-healing systems that can react to both internal and external conditions without human intervention. These kind of systems are known as autonomic systems (our human body is one example). In this session I will show you some of the most common and most powerful reactive patterns you can use to automatically scale systems, grow systems, and self-repair systems, all using the basic language API and simple messaging. Through code samples in Java and actual run-time demonstrations, I'll show you how the patterns work and also show you sample implementations. Get ready for the future of software architecture - that you can start implementing on Monday.

Agenda

  • introduction to reactive architecture
  • supervisor consumer pattern (automated microservices scalability)
  • workflow event pattern (automated asynchronous error handling)
  • producer control flow pattern (automated repairing of downstream systems)

Books

Java Message Service: Creating Distributed Enterprise Applications

by Mark Richards, Richard Monson-Haefel, and David A Chappell

  • Java Message Service, Second Edition, is a thorough introduction to the standard API that supports "messaging" -- the software-to-software exchange of crucial data among network computers. You'll learn how JMS can help you solve many architectural challenges, such as integrating dissimilar systems and applications, increasing scalability, eliminating system bottlenecks, supporting concurrent processing, and promoting flexibility and agility.

    Updated for JMS 1.1, this second edition also explains how this vendor-agnostic specification will help you write messaging-based applications using IBM's MQ, Progress Software's SonicMQ, ActiveMQ, and many other proprietary messaging services.

    With Java Message Service, you will:

    • Build applications using point-to-point and publish-and-subscribe messaging models
    • Use features such as transactions and durable subscriptions to make an application reliable
    • Implement messaging within Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) using message-driven beans
    • Use JMS with RESTful applications and with the Spring application framework

    Messaging is a powerful paradigm that makes it easier to uncouple different parts of an enterprise application. Java Message Service, Second Edition, will quickly teach you how to use the key technology that lies behind it.


97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts

by

  • In this truly unique technical book, today's leading software architects present valuable principles on key development issues that go way beyond technology. More than four dozen architects -- including Neal Ford, Michael Nygard, and Bill de hOra -- offer advice for communicating with stakeholders, eliminating complexity, empowering developers, and many more practical lessons they've learned from years of experience. Among the 97 principles in this book, you'll find useful advice such as:

    • Don't Put Your Resume Ahead of the Requirements (Nitin Borwankar)
    • Chances Are, Your Biggest Problem Isn't Technical (Mark Ramm)
    • Communication Is King; Clarity and Leadership, Its Humble Servants (Mark Richards)
    • Simplicity Before Generality, Use Before Reuse (Kevlin Henney)
    • For the End User, the Interface Is the System (Vinayak Hegde)
    • It's Never Too Early to Think About Performance (Rebecca Parsons)

    To be successful as a software architect, you need to master both business and technology. This book tells you what top software architects think is important and how they approach a project. If you want to enhance your career, 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know is essential reading.


No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology: The 2007 Edition

by Neal Ford

  • Twenty-seven weekends a year, the No Fluff, Just Stuff conference rolls into another town, featuring the world's best technical speakers and writers. Up until now, you had to go to one of the shows to soak up their collective wisdom. Now, you can hold it in the palm of your hand. The No Fluff, Just Stuff Anthology represents topics presented on the tour, written by the speakers who created it. This book allows the authors the chance to go more in depth on the subjects for which they are passionate. It is guaranteed to surprise, enlighten, and broaden your understanding of the technical world in which you live.

    The No Fluff, Just Stuff Symposium Series is a traveling conference series for software developers visiting 27 cities a year. No Fluff has put on over 75 symposia throughout the U.S. and Canada, with more than 12,000 attendees so far. Its success has been a result of focusing on high quality technical presentations, great speakers, and no marketing hype. Now this world-class material is available to you in print for the first time.


Java Transaction Design Strategies

by Mark Richards

  • Understanding how transaction management works in Java and developing an effective transaction design strategy can help to avoid data integrity problems in your applications and databases and ease the pain of inevitable system failures. This book is about how to design an effective transaction management strategy using the transaction models provided by Java-based frameworks such as EJB and Spring. Techniques, best practices, and pitfalls with each transaction model will be described. In addition, transaction design patterns will bring all these concepts and techniques together and describe how to use these models to effectively manage transactions within your EJB or Spring-based Java applications. The book covers: - The local transaction model - The programmatic transaction model - The declarative transaction model - XA Transaction Processing - Transaction Design Patterns