Middleware is essential for application development which increases the productivity of full-stack developers by bringing battle hardened functional capabilities covering the majority of a digital-driven project. However, with the adoption to Microservices and cloud-native application architecture middleware cannot use like used in the past, this is a solution for the above problem. Complexity created by distributed computing encapsulated by the middleware for over two decades and made application developers productive by letting them focus on business logic relevant to their domain. Modern architecture and technology drift, such as Microservices, Cloud-native, and Serverless do not have room to embed middleware into the application development while the need is still there. In this talk, Asanka is going to deep-dive into an API-centric, decentralized, and code-first approach to fill the void of middleware and make the application developer productive again.

1. INTEGRATION SUMMIT 2019
The Reconstitution of Middleware with APIs
Story of a Middleware Developer
Asanka Abeysinghe
Deputy CTO & VP, Architecture - CTO Office
WSO2, Inc

2. February 1997

3. First day at work
picture credit: https://www.richard-banks.org

4. First weeke at work
ISAM
DCom INPUT-OUTPUT SECTION.
FILE-CONTROL.
SELECT file-name ASSIGN TO dd-name
ORGANIZATION IS INDEXED
ACCESS MODE IS SEQUENTIAL
RECORD KEY IS rec-key1
ALTERNATE RECORD KEY IS rec-key2

5. March 1997

6. picture credit: http://www.levisstadium.com/getting-here/

7. picture credit: https://www.ronniestewartracing.com/events/2016/4/2/levi-stadium-supercross-race

8. picture credit: https://www.ninersnation.com

9. Platform to perform
Connecting an experience
Colin Kaepernick Eli Tomac Chris Martin

10. Middleware is computer software that provides services
to software applications beyond those available from the operating
system. It can be described as "software glue”.
Middleware makes it easier for software developers to implement
communication and input/output, so they can focus on the
specific purpose of their application.

11. Type of Middleware
Message Oriented Object Oriented
Remote Procedure Call Database
Transaction Portals
Embedded Content-centric

12. Same power in different forms
picture credit: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/asterix-exhibition-the-indomitable-gaul-who-restored-frances-postwar-pride-wpfcfqv2s

13. Fall 2008

14. Modular Middleware

15. May 2019

16. 2019
1997 2003
Architect
2012
VP Solutions
Architecture
2001 2008
Director
Solutions
Architecture
Deputy CTO
Open Source
Distributed Computing
Programmer
COBOL
OLE, OLE2
COM, COM+
DCOM
CORBA
Java Developer
J2EE
MMS
286-DX4
Eventing
FIX
HL7
Committer
CONNECT-health
Global architecture team
500+ customers
Champions program
Chief
Architect2005
QSP
AR
Trusted advocate
Game hacker
C++ programmer
Age-16
Hedge fund tools
Ref. Architecture
Ref. Methodology
Evangelize
2018
Middleware Developer

17. In the long run
Middleware is disappearing
- in to code (simpler constructs, more power)
- in to infrastructure (scaling, management,
observability)

18. People

19. Full Stack Developer

20. Connected roles
Architecture Development Deployment
Architect Developer DevOps

21. Process

22. Step 1 Step 1
Step 1
Step 2 Step 2
Step 2
… …
…
Step n Step p
Step q
SGMM
SOA
Governance
Planning
Assessment
SOA
Governance
Capabilities
Heat Map
SOA
Governance
Transition
Plan
SOA
Governance
Assets Techniques, Checklist,
Guidance, Examples
Governance Process
Models
Complex processes
inturupt flow

23. App Logic
. . .
Scaling HA Resilience Observability
Scaling HA Resilience Observability
HA Resilience Observability
Compute Network Storage
Ops Infrastructure
Centralized
Dev Org
Middleware
& Integration
CoE Teams
Ops
Team
HA Resilience ObservabilityScaling
INTEGRATION
HA Resilience ObservabilityScaling
MESSAGING
HA Resilience ObservabilityScaling
DATA
HA Resilience ObservabilityScaling
SECURITY
App LogicApp Logic
App 1 App 2 App (n)
Fast Waterfall
“Wagile”

24. Agile - Developer Flow

25. Agile Flow for
Development Teams

26. picture credit: https://www.formula1.com/en/teams/Red-Bull.html
Self-Organized teams

27. Technology

28. The wrong
technology stack
interrupts flow

29. COMPOSABLE ENTERPRISE WITH CLOUD NATIVE
Autonomous releases, CI/CD, self-organization, change-control authority
App (n)
App
Microservice
INTEGRATION
MESSAGING
DATA
SECURITY
App 1
INTEGRATION
MESSAGING
DATA
SECURITY
Microservices
App 2
App
Miniservices
INTEGRATION
MESSAGING
DATA
SECURITY
APIs
Self-
Organizing
Dev Teams
. . .
Ops
Team
Event-Based Hybrid Integration Platform
Scaling | HA | Resilience | Observability
Orchestration & High-Performance Data Store
Ops Infrastructure
Architecture Blocks Enable the Composable Enterprise
App Logic
. . .
Scaling HA Resilience Observability
Scaling HA Resilience Observability
HA Resilience Observability
Compute Network Storage
Ops Infrastructure
Centralized
Dev Org
Middleware
& Integration
CoE Teams
Ops
Team
LAYERED ENTERPRISE WITH CENTER OF EXCELLENCE
Coordinated releases, organizational rigor, centralized change control
HA Resilience ObservabilityScaling
INTEGRATION
HA Resilience ObservabilityScaling
MESSAGING
HA Resilience ObservabilityScaling
DATA
HA Resilience ObservabilityScaling
SECURITY
App LogicApp Logic
App 1 App 2 App (n)
DevOps

30. Control Plane:
- Signaling of the network
- Makes decisions about the traffic flow
Data Plane:
- Forwards traffic between hops
- Takes data packets
picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/teflon/
Management Plane:
- Configure
- Observeabiltty, Monitor

31. Intra and Inter communication
Architecture Blocks Architecture Blocks

32. Intra and Inter communication
Local-mesh
Global-mesh
Architecture Blocks Architecture Blocks

33. API-centric Architecture
Architecture Block Architecture Block

34. API-centric Architecture Pull APIs
- RESTful HTTP, gRPC
Push APIs
- Events JMS, AMQP, SMTP
- Streams Kafka, MQTT
Architecture Block Architecture Block

35. In the long run
Middleware is disappearing
- in to code
- in to infrastructure

36. Pragmatic Approach
Ballerina: middleware embedded into the code
Cellery: middleware embedded into the infrastructure
Cell-based Architecture: decentralized architecture
Agile Methodology: increase the flow efficiency

37. A cloud-native programming language for microservices and APIs
- A compiled, transactional, statically and
strongly typed programming language with
textual and graphical syntaxes.
- Incorporates fundamental concepts of
distributed system integration
- Offers a type safe, concurrent environment
to implement microservices with
distributed transactions, reliable
messaging, stream processing, and
workflows
- Compiles into container images for
deployment on Kubernetes and Docker
https://ballerina.io/

38. Ballerina - code and visual syntax in sync

39. https://cellery.io/
Build, run, and
manage
code-first
composites
on
Kubernetes

40. Cellery - simple composition and graphical view

41. picture credit: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/
https://github.com/wso2/reference-architecture
Cell-based Architecture

42. Cell: Units of Enterprise Architecture
A cell is a collection of
components, grouped from
design and implementation
into deployment. A cell is
independently deployable,
manageable, and observable.

44. Cell Types
Cell Type Components
Logic Microservices, Functions, MicroGateways, lightweight storages
Integration MicroESB or other integration microservices, lightweight storage and/or cache
Legacy Existing systems, legacy services
External SaaS and partner systems
Data RDBMS, NoSQL, File, Message Broker*
Identity IDP, user stores
Channel Web Apps, IoT, mobile apps

45. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/vasile23/
Reference Methodology
https://github.com/wso2/reference-methodology

46. People, Process & Technology ++

48. Cells and Podular Organizations

49. In the long run
Middleware is disappearing
- in to code
- in to infrastructure

50. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/
APIs the glue of (µ) components
deployed in a decentralized
architecture

51. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/infomatique/
Invitation to consume and contribute
https://ballerina.io
https://cellery.io
https://github.com/wso2/reference-architecture
https://github.com/wso2/reference-methodology

52. INTEGRATION SUMMIT 2019
THANK YOU
wso2.com
@asankama