I'm very interesting in the architecture of systems similar to Amazon SQS. Interestingly I couldn't find much discussion on such systems. I guess it's because SQS is such a typical iceberg system that has sophisticated designs to provide dead simple APIs: having a queue that supports competing consumers and simply scales infinitely (in the eyes of users) with users provisioning capacity is no joke.
Ask HN: Where can I see many examples of real companies' software architecture?
91–100 of 106 posts
Re: Ask HN: Where can I see many examples of real companies' software architecture?
#92In the real world [of software], things are solved by choosing the tech with the lowest barrier to entry, not reading any documentation, getting a minimum-not-quite-viable-proof-of-concept working in a development environment, then making that production, over-working a select few to keep it running, and a lot of crossed fingers and heads in sand. The only thing you'll learn from different verticals and sizes is how size and scope have no correlation to how things are built or whether they work well.
The interesting part is how larger scale makes things fail more often, and the response to increased failure can either be running around with your hair on fire for years, or a solid firefighting team, or actually teaching teams not to build products that catch on fire. The only way to get the last one is by focusing on people, not technology.
Re: Ask HN: Where can I see many examples of real companies' software architecture?
#93All of our Sourcegraph docs are public, including our architecture overviews and a myriad other docs linked from there. https://docs.sourcegraph.com/dev/background-information/arch...
Also all of our (Sourcegraph's) code is public, so you can see what the architecture actually looks like implemented in code.
Re: Ask HN: Where can I see many examples of real companies' software architecture?
#94Thoughtworks keeps a "technology radar" that I have found very interesting. I won't post the "whys" but it's worth looking for upcoming components and tech that they are seeing used more in consulting. https://www.thoughtworks.com/radar/techniques
Re: Ask HN: Where can I see many examples of real companies' software architecture?
#95A popular choice in the real world is known as 'the big ball of mud', e.g. as described at http://www.laputan.org/mud/ .
It isn't really a choice, it is just what happens due to incentives and changing needs and leaders and politics and technologies inside the company. People assume that software architecture is like building architecture, in some ways it is, but NO ONE has ever showed up to a construction site that was half way done and said "Hey guys the steel framing we ordered has been delayed so please continue building the rest o…
I like Casey Muratori's view of software architecture being more akin to urban planning than to building architecture. Taking that view seems to alleviate many of the apparent paradoxes.
Re: Ask HN: Where can I see many examples of real companies' software architecture?
#96> Other than some very high-profile companies (like Netflix, github) ... it's hard for me to find easily digestible (20-60 mins) examples So I think this doesn't meet your requirements, but I like Tech Dummies Narendra L's YouTube videos [0]. He introduces big tech companies' systems in 30-60min videos and it's not difficult to understand. [0] https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkQkbY7JNJuBoTemzQfjy...
so like.. not to be too cynical but how does he know his representation is correct or at least not misleading? a lot of youtuber content is just made up.
Narendra's content is awesome, but I think you're right to be skeptical. His content is more focused on how to answer system design interview questions about how the companies operate.
Re: Ask HN: Where can I see many examples of real companies' software architecture?
#97This is a dated paper, but it checks many of the boxes you ask for - the original Windows Azure Storage architecture: https://sigops.org/sosp/sosp11/current/2011-Cascais/printabl...
Re: Ask HN: Where can I see many examples of real companies' software architecture?
#98Re: Ask HN: Where can I see many examples of real companies' software architecture?
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
It isn't really a choice, it is just what happens due to incentives and changing needs and leaders and politics and technologies inside the company. People assume that software architecture is like building architecture, in some ways it is, but NO ONE has ever showed up to a construction site that was half way done and said "Hey guys the steel framing we ordered has been delayed so please continue building the rest o…
This is awesome (as well as the ball of mud "paper"). I think the building construction analogy might be similar to a home which has seen multiple remodels. Now imagine a scenario where you have an absentee owner with a lot of money, a permanently staffed architect and a bunch of extremely able, slightly competitive contractors all on staff - each trying to prove their annual salary. The original one story building w…
Just another example of Silicon Valley being ahead of its time: The Winchester House is pretty much exactly this. It used to be 5 stories, too, until the 1906 quake gave it a haircut.