Atomic Architecture
A vision for better software systems
Malcolm Sparks, CTO@JUXT
Motivation
Status Quo
Within this research setting, we found that differences in architectural complexity could account for 50% drops in productivity, three-fold increases in defect density, and order-of-magnitude increases in staff turnover.
Source: System design and the cost of architectural complexity, Sturtevant (2013) https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/79551
Atomic Architecture
... in 7 properties
P1: Shared State
P1: Shared State
Prior Art
- clojure.core/atom
- reagent's r/atom
- Client/Server (PC/Unix)
P1: Shared State
Trade-offs/Questions
- Is the shared database an anti-pattern?
- How to get consensus on domain model
- How large should our domain be?
P2: Domain Operations
book-appointment, cancel-reservation, refund-customer, get-booking, find-customer, calculate-pension-accrual, reserve-product, send-confirmation...
P3: Data Consistency
P4: API Only
P5: Access Control
P5: Access Control
Prior Art
- OAuth2
- OpenID/Connect
- Still very hard!
P5: Access Control
Challenges
Executive Order 14028, “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity”, pushes agencies to adopt zero trust cybersecurity principles and adjust their network architectures accordingly.
https://zerotrust.cyber.gov/zero-trust-maturity-model/ May 12, 2021
P5: Access Control
Demo
P6: Event Logging
P7: Bitemporality
P7: Bitemporality
Post-script
XTDB/Site
| Principle | XTDB | Site |
|---|---|---|
| Shared State | Yes | |
| Domain Operations | Yes | |
| Contractual Interfaces | REST/GraphQL | |
| Consistency | Support for tx-fns | Operations run in tx-fns |
| Access Control | Yes, plus OAuth | |
| Record Events | Implicit | Explicit |
| Version History | Bitemporality |
Questions?
Email: mal@juxt.pro (get in touch!)
Twitter: @malcolmsparks
GitHub: @malcolmsparks
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malcolmsparks/