On the ninth day of festivus my colleague gave to me, nine wombats working!
Introducing Principal Consultant, Elliott Murray
I’ve developed a passion for collaboration and learning which is something I try to pass on to my clients and colleagues. I think it’s important to share your skills and be a mentor. It’s an extension of my belief in the open source philosophy – knowledge transfer is vital.
When I’m not at work, you’ll most likely to find me running. The hardest thing I’ve ever done was complete the 2014 New York Marathon. Managing a team of 190 software engineers was a breeze in comparison!
What book have you reviewed?
Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems (2015) by Sam Newman.
What is this book about?
Sam Newman has become the definitive voice on all things small. As a result, my signed, much dog eared, and much loved copy of Building Microservices has done the rounds in the office. Sam manages to go wide and deep in a surprisingly readable book.
He starts off with some definitions before giving some ideas on how and why you might want to migrate to this sort of architecture from your traditional monolith. Some good use cases – including REA, where DiUS was heavily involved – reinforce this. Techniques on how to divide and conquer, and common problems such as big databases and code bases are covered. A strong underlying emphasis is placed on a Devops culture, and Continuous Delivery comes through in the book. It covers not just deployment but aspects such as security and monitoring. Throw in some good Automated Testing principles and a sprinkling of Conway’s Law, and you can see why this has quickly become the bible for organizations taking their first step into a smaller world.
What did you enjoy most about this book?
It managed to balance being an accessible and easy book to read with providing deep and insightful content that I have used in my day to day work.
How many wombats do you give this book out of five
