Everything you didn't know about EDA with James Eastham
Mar 29, 2024
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Join AWS Senior Cloud Architect James Eastham and Allen Helton as they dive into all things Event-Driven Architectures (EDA), discussing topics such as transitioning from REST APIs, initiating EDA individually or in enterprises, and the transformative impact of EDA on programming. James shares insights on what to include in events, EDA vs request/response architectures, and observability in distributed systems.
Event-driven architectures simplify complex distributed systems by using events as triggers for streamlined communication and improved scalability.
Structured event data with clear schemas is crucial in EDA to maintain loose coupling, enable efficient communication, and facilitate smooth migrations.
Deep dives
Event Driven Architectures: A Growing Trend in Cloud Computing
Event driven architectures have been around for decades but are now experiencing a surge in adoption, especially with the increasing complexity of distributed systems in cloud environments. One key benefit of event driven architectures is their ability to mitigate the complexities often encountered in distributed systems. By using events as triggers for system functionality, organizations can streamline communication and improve system scalability.
Eda Expertise and Career Journey with James Eastam
James Eastam, a senior cloud architect at AWS, shares insights on his career journey from self-taught programmer to cloud architect. He highlights the shift from traditional software development to working with serverless technologies and building systems for startups. His role in professional services at AWS involves hands-on work with customers to build solutions, distinguishing from solutions architects who focus on high-level discussions.
Differentiating Roles: Producer, Consumer, and Subscriber in Event Driven Architectures
In event driven architectures, roles such as producer, consumer, and subscriber play key parts in system communication. The producer is akin to a client in HTTP communication, initiating the event publishing process. Consumers or subscribers receive events and process them accordingly. The addition of middleware like event buses, queues, or streams facilitates efficient event handling and distribution.
Importance of Structuring Event Data and Schema Versioning
Structuring event data and defining clear schemas are essential in event driven architectures to maintain loose coupling and enable efficient communication. Utilizing standards like the cloud events specification or metadata patterns helps ensure consistency in event formats. When versioning event schemas, a gradual transition approach involving publishing multiple versions and subscribing based on version numbers can help minimize disruptions and facilitate smooth migrations.
Event-driven architectures (EDA) is an intimidating subject for many, but don't confuse complexity with unfamiliarity. While EDA might seem unnecessarily complex, it's a necessary architectural pattern as the world goes more and more distributed. Join James Eastham and Allen Helton as they discuss all things EDA, ranging from what to put in your events to how EDA compares to request/response architectures to observability. Whether you're looking to get into events for the first time or have been practicing for years, the episode is for you. #### About James James is a Senior Cloud Architect at Amazon Web Services and content creator. He has over 10 years of experience in software, at all layers of the application stack. He has worked in front-line support, database administration, back-end development and now works with some of the biggest companies in the world architecting systems using AWS technologies. James also produces content on YouTube, focused on building applications with serverless technologies and event-driven architecture.