Event-Driven Architecture Content Round-Up for Developers

As 85% of businesses are striving for event-driven architecture, more and more people, especially developers, have become interested in the topic and are looking for related resources and updates. Since so many things are happening in the event-driven architecture sphere, it is not easy to track the updates when one is busy.

I have been managing Solace’s Developer Community for a long time now, and I constantly see the need for a one-stop shop for developer-focused content when it comes to event-driven architecture.

To save you time, I have done the search for you and compiled this content round-up specifically curated for developers.

Understanding Event-Driven Architecture

So, what is event-driven architecture? I would loosely define it as an architecture where the information production and consumption are triggered by events. The Gartner glossary defines it as:

“a design paradigm in which a software component executes in response to receiving one or more event notifications. EDA is more loosely coupled than the client/server paradigm because the component that sends the notification doesn’t know the identity of the receiving components at the time of compiling.”

An everyday example is the traffic light where the signals changing to a specific color (the event) provokes a reaction from the driver. The driver did not continuously have to ask if the light was red, yellow, or green, the event happened and was relayed to the driver instantaneously. Then, the reaction the driver has is determined by other rules and regulations. Now, this is obviously a very simple explanation and there is a lot more to it.

If you’d like a laugh, watch these event-driven architecture and digital transformation experts try to explain the term to their Grandmothers.

If you’d like a more in depth look at event-driven architecture, what it means, and some stats around how it is being implemented across industries, check out these resources:

• What is Event-Driven Architecture? – How we at Solace define event-driven architecture, including the benefits and frequently asked questions.
• The Great EDA Migration | 2021 Survey Results – An industry-first survey on event-driven architecture, shedding light on how organizations are striving to incorporate real-time data and event-driven architecture into their IT landscape.
• The Many Meanings of Event-Driven Architecture | Martin Fowler – This YouTube video has almost half a million views and Martin Fowler has long been seen as the authority on EDA. He talks about the observations from this post.
• What’s an Event Driven System? – Gaurav Sen (~ 450K subscribers) explains the concept of an event-driven system, including advantages and disadvantages.

Event-Driven Architecture Blog Posts for Developers

Googling “event-driven architecture” results in 254,000,000 results in just over a second (for most). As with any topic of this magnitude, you have to sift through ads, marketing fodder, salesy documents, and service provider-specific narratives (yes, Solace is guilty of this as well) to find the direct answers to your questions. I have done the searching, and below is a list of quality blog posts on the topic for you to peruse at your leisure:

• What is event-driven architecture and why will it be big in 2022? – I put this at the top of the list because it talks about Gartner’s prediction for event-driven architecture in 2022. We are already halfway through 2022 and you can judge for yourself whether Gartner’s prediction is correct or not.
• Golang and Event-Driven Architecture – Go has increasingly become the #1 language developers want to learn and use. However, many do not know how to use it with event-driven architecture. The best part of this blog post is the hands-on approach and the code snippets.
• SAP Event Mesh – Event Driven Architecture Explained – I like the author’s explanation of event-driven architecture using the real-world car signal example. It’s concise, easy to understand, and fun!
• A Guide for the Developer’s Journey to Event-Driven Development – Tamimi Ahmad, a developer advocate at Solace, created a guide from a software developer’s lens and how event-driven architecture has changed his perspective.
• A Guide to Event-Driven Architecture in Elixir – A look at several methods of implementing event-driven architecture with Elixir, including synchronous EDA, using GenServer, and using Genstage.
• Benefits of migrating to event-driven architecture – A review of how EDA can better coordinate microservices, handle errors, and bring developer teams closer.
• Event-Driven Architecture Certification Path for Architects and Developers – Solace has developed a free, industry-recognized Event-Driven Architecture Practitioner Certification for architects and developers looking to learn, validate, and showcase their EDA skills.

Event-Driven Architecture Videos for Developers

YouTube has a lot of hidden gems when it comes to learning about implementing, deploying, and designing event-driven applications. Here are some of my favorites:

• Event-Driven Architecture – All you need to know – Developers are busy, but you can learn everything about EDA under 20 minutes. Don’t believe it? This video can prove to you it is possible.
• Simplify application integration with Event Driven Architecture – Who doesn’t want to simplify things? This video teaches you how to make application integration easier with EDA so that you can have time to enjoy other things.
• Event Driven Architecture in the Real World! 4 Practical Examples – Like me, you probably prefer learning by example. This video not only gives you 4 examples, but all these examples are practical use cases from the day-to-day life.
• EDA Videos for Developers | EDA Summit – EDA Summit is a yearly event dedicated to the advancement of event-driven architecture in business. This developer playlist compiles videos from the 2021 and 2022 events that take a deeper dive into the technical benefits of EDA and where developers can learn from experts from around the world. It includes:
  • “5 Lessons I’ve Learned Implementing Event-Driven Architecture”
  • “How EDA Helps Developers Build Innovations”
  • “How an Event-driven Architecture Changed the Way I Design Software”
  • “Confessions of an SOA-Evangelist – Learning to Love APIs, Event-Driven, and AsyncAPI”
• Gotchas! In Event Driven Architecture – What you need to be aware of – Be aware of the EDA gotchas before you start your EDA journey!
• Mapping the Web API and Event-Driven Landscape in a Machine Readable Way – Use OpenAPI to map your web APIs and AsyncAPI to map out your event-driven APIs.

Events Developers Might be Interested in (Aug-Oct 2022)

Here is a list of upcoming events in the latter half of 2022 that you might be interested in attending to learn more about the topic in-person and virtually.

• August 10, 2022: Mastering Patterns in Event-Driven Architecture
• September 1, 2022: GOTO EDA Day 2022
• September 26-30, 2022: NDC Oslo 2022 (Ian Cooper will give the talk “Managing Event Driven Architectures”)
• October 2-3, 2022: Event Sourcing Live 2022
• October 10-14, 2022: NDC Sydney 2022 (Marilag Dimatulac Svennevig will talk about “Message Brokering and Event Driven Architecture on Azure”)

Tweets, Threads, and Accounts to Follow

The Twitterverse is ripe with content, opinions, suggestions, and general chatter around event-driven architecture. Here are some noteworthy accounts and threads I have come across:

• What is the best reference on testing event driven systems? — @PaulDJohnston
• Not sure which #software architecture is the best choice for your #startup? — @TildeLoop
• Event driven Microservices based on #Redis pub/sub — @DuktigS
• In this post, we provide an automated solution to horizontally scale Amazon #RDS for #PostgreSQL using an event-driven architecture — @marcobuss
• Hey by the way, can anyone from your timeline recommend a book/ article/something related to Event Driven architecture or Implementation patterns? — @MexMusicMan
• It’s time to bring event-driven architecture #EDA to your applications with Amplify Streams — @Axway
• It’s just that events in event driven architecture are a totally different thing than events in event sourcing — @fanderlf
• Calling something integration event breaks the goal of an event-driven architecture IMO — @YellowBrickC
• @EDASummit
• @AyncAPISpec
• @SolaceDevs (shameless plug)
• #eventdriven
• #eventdrivenarchitecture

I hope you found this roundup helpful. If you see a good EDA piece, share it with other people in our Solace Developer Community so that the community can benefit from it or discuss it.