Flow Architectures
The Future of Streaming and Event-Driven Integration
2020-09-30byJames Urquhart
The evolution of software design is moving into a phase dominated by events and streaming data. Serverless programming, IOT data capture, and even live video provide a near real-time look at the world around us. Software is being developed now that can optimize the ways not only how technology interacts, but how businesses themselves integrate with other businesses to meet customer needs, a phenomenon I call "flow". Flow may best be defined as the defacto patterns and standards by which activity and related data is communicated between arbitrary parties over the Internet. This book explores a critical implication of that evolution: what happens when the sources, formats, and mechanisms that enable the exchange of events and data streams are commoditized and standard, and businesses can discover and link new sources of activity to enhance existing businesses or drive new markets altogether? And what are some of the technologies and architectural patterns that you can begin to adopt today to position your company for the tremendous opportunities enabled by flow? As HTTP revolutionized the way we linked information, will de facto event standards revolutionize the way we link activity?