So this is a mix of a couple of howtos. First, we have a simple Spring Boot app that retrieves some data from a MongoDB database that has authentication enabled to access it. Next, we will see how to store secrets in a Vault implementation and then programmatically access it (in our case the user ID and password to access the database).
An API Gateway serves as the front-door to your APIs providing features such as route matching and forwarding, rate limiting, path rewriting, circuit breaker patterns, security policy management, throttling, API version management, among other features.
It is hard not to be affected by the constant chatter on Microservices Architecture and Container technology. Both are leading the discussions nowadays and they combine to provide new ways to Architect distributed systems and provide agility in delivering business value. While they do bring in big benefits when implemented successfully, the path to success for most enterprises (other than startups/product/tech firms) is going to be difficult and having a level of measured caution would be good.
To discuss Serverless Architecture we need to understand how we got here. From using physical machines we moved to virtual machines (somewhere in between a few brave folks also used linux/solaris containers). The current trend is container technologies such as Docker or CoreOS RKT which allow even more efficient use of resources. Regardless of which you use, we are often required to plan our application infrastructure needs upfront and permanently keep the “servers” running.
Just came across a nice tool to manage database migrations – flyway. Flyway lets you manage your database changes in text files and migrates them in a systematic and repeatable manner.
Its amazing how much work there is when wiring up a new J2EE application from ground up. Deciding on the frameworks to use is one challenge and then wiring them up so they all work seamlessly together is another. JBoss Seam has indeed tried to address this very issue and I wish them all the luck. Continue reading