The number of microservices running in enterprises increases daily. As a result, service composition, governance, security, and observability are becoming a challenge to implement and incorporate. A “cell-based” architecture is an approach that can be applied to current or desired development and technologies to address these issues. This technology-neutral approach helps cloud-native dev teams become more efficient, act in a more self-organized manner, and speed overall release times. In this deck, Asanka will introduce the "cell-based" architecture, which is decentralized, API-centric, cloud-native and microservices friendly. He will explain the role of APIs in the cell-based approach, as well as examine how real applications are built as cells. Asanka will explore the metrics and approaches that can be used to measure the effectiveness of the architecture and explore how organizations can implement the cell approach. Watch the session on-demand here: https://wso2.com/library/summit-2020/apac/a-decentralized-reference-architecture-for-cloud-native-applications/

1. Cell-based Architecture
A Decentralized Architecture Pattern for Cloud-native Applications
August 2020

2. Objectives
#1 why: a new pattern
#2 how: created the pattern
#3 what: is Cell-based architecture

3. Motivation

4. Centralized & Layered
picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaktuslampa/

5. Centralized & Layered
picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kaktuslampa/

6. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/69929929@N06/
Powerpoint Architects

7. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnerlandsen/
Reality of the Enterprise

8. Brownfield > Greenfield
picture credit: https://www.apstra.com/home/landscape-of-meadow-field-with-the-changing-environment-2/
Legacy, monolithic Microservices, sprawl

9. Reference Implementations
picture credit: https://www.marinersmuseum.org/

10. picture credit: http://unlocked.footlocker.com/
Underutilization of the Technology

11. Gap: architecture | development | deployment
picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/28994379@N02/

12. picture credit: https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2017/07/georgia-contractor-sells-farmers-solar-tough-market/
Dependency management

13. picture credit: https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2017/07/georgia-contractor-sells-farmers-solar-tough-market/
Dependency management

14. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/tiocfaidh_ar_la_1916/
Architecture Patterns

15. Timeline

16. Background: Layered Architecture

17. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/23119666@N03/
A platform with an agile team
100 APIs, 60 message flows, 80 services, n DBs
Multi-tenanted, 3 active tenants
First release after 3 years

18. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/imcountingufoz/
Rise of Microservices

19. Pragmatic Microservices
Netflix: APIs
Uber: Edge Gateway
eBay: API Facade
Gartner: Mini Services

20. Background: Layered Architecture with MSA

21. Background: Segmented Architecture
BS-1 BS-2 BS-n
G-1 G-2
US-1 US-n

22. Platform of Platforms
Platform (shared capabilities)
Project1
Project2
Project3
Projectn
Platform (shared capabilities)
Project1
Project2
Project3
Projectn
Platform (shared capabilities)
Project1
Project2
Project3
Projectn
Platform (shared capabilities)
Project1
Project2
Project3
Projectn
CI/CD
User
Store

23. picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ableman/

24. Making of……
picture credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Frank_Schulenburg CC BY 3.0

25. Building the
Concept

26. Business vs technical services
picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/arpadlukacs/

27. Service: Technical definition
A code exposes through an
interface that describes a
collection of operations that
are network accessible using
a standardized messaging
protocol.

28. Service: Business definition
Software components that
can be spontaneously
discovered, combined, and
recombined to provide a
solution to a business
problem.

29. Microservice: Technical definition
A microservice must have a
single purpose and be loosely
coupled in design and
deployed independently of
other microservices.
"Micro" is a concept of scope
rather than size.

30. Microservice: Business definition
Microservices is an approach to
application development in
which a large application is built
as a suite of modular
components or services.
These services are built around
business capabilities.

31. Group of (Micro)services

32. The cell is the basic structural,
functional, and
biological unit of all known
living organisms

33. Cell-based Architecture

34. Component: Atomic Units
A component represents a
process or business logic
running in a container,
serverless environment, or an
existing runtime. A component
is designed based on a specific
scope, which can be
independently run and reused
at the runtime.

35. 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.

36. Cell:Component
1:M
1:1

37. Connected Cells
picture credit: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/

38. 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

39. Inter and Intra Cell communication
DP- data plane
CP- control plane
MP- management plane

40. Inter and Intra Cell communication
Local-mesh
Global-mesh
DP- data plane
CP- control plane
MP- management plane

41. Connected Cells
Cell gateway (ingress)
Sidecar (egress)
Adaptor (egress)
Ambassador (egress)

42. API-first Architecture
picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/hugh_nelson/

43. API-first Architecture

44. API-first Architecture Pull APIs
- RESTful HTTP, gRPC
Push APIs
- Events JMS, AMQP, SMTP
- Streams Kafka, MQTT

45. Gateway Pattern
picture credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/

46. Automated Governance (Re)-enables Flow
Policy Store
(Registry)
Observability
(Monitoring/
Analytics)
Policy
Enforcement
(GW)
Automated governance is made
of three things:
A source of truth:
Policy store/registry
Enforcement of the policy
Gateway or plugin attempting to keep
the desired state
Observability
How close to the desired state are we?

47. Security of Cells

48. Developer Experience (DX)
of a Cell

49. Creating Cells
Brand new Cell
Existing (micro)services
Update an existing Cell
Create a new version

51. Lifecycle of a Cell

53. Structured Agility
Versioned Components
Versioned Cells
Dependency managed
Autowired
Reusable
Enhanced MSA & CNA

54. Cell-based Enterprise
Architecture

56. 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

57. Reference Implementation L0

59. Reference Implementation L1

61. Human-centric Architecture
picture credit: https://www.vertoanalytics.com/human-vs-data-centric-marketing/

62. Cells and Cellular Organizations

63. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/06/29/the-cellular-enterprise/

64. https://nordicapis.com/what-is-cell-based-architecture/

65. Measure the success
picture credit: https://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/direct-marketing/running-a-direct-mail-campaign/getting-the-measure-of-your-marketing

66. https://www.tasktop.com/blog/5-best-metrics-youve-never-met/
https://dzone.com/articles/reducing-mttr
Mean Time to Repair

67. Self-contained
Deployable as a unit
Independently elastic
Local data & control plane
Summary: Cell

68. Decentralized, MSA, Cloud-native
Technology neutral
Human-centric
APIs as products
Summary: Cell-based Architecture

69. Contribution: walk the talk
picture credit: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/06/microsoft-buying-github

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

71. The Technology Partner of Your Digital Journey
67
https://wso2.com/contact/
https://wso2.com/strategic-consulting/
asankaa AT WSO2.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/asankaabeysinghe/
@asankama
Image: https://www.crn.com/news/cloud/crn-exclusive-new-google-cloud-partner-advantage-program-launches-today