Get started

Get started

Bring yourself up to speed with our introductory content.

• How to start using a BDD framework

  Why bother with behavior-driven development? Learn how this Agile-focused development framework can help bolster application quality, and explore tooling that can help. Continue Reading

• Get started with API versioning and URIs

  Applications change, and the APIs they depend on need to be updated and upgraded accordingly. Developers who know the value of versioning and the basics of numbering improve APIs. Continue Reading

• How to fuse domain-driven design and microservices

  Domain-driven design helps organizations create business capabilities with the architecture that microservices need. Here's how to merge DDD into your development process. Continue Reading

• 2020 conferences for software developers and architects

  Fortunately, you can't lose your badge at a virtual conference. Check out our list of both online and in-person conferences, including DockerCon, API World and Microsoft Build. Continue Reading

• 5 stages of an API lifecycle explained

  APIs are not just a component you can set and forget. Developers need to plan, create, deploy and monitor APIs to keep them aligned with business needs, as well as know when it's time to retire them. Continue Reading

• Definitions to Get Started

  • Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
  • object-oriented programming (OOP)
  • data dictionary
  • software

  • RESTful API (REST API)
  • open API (public API)
  • API management
  • middleware

  View All Definitions

• Remote Procedure Call (RPC)

  Remote Procedure Call (RPC) is a protocol that one program can use to request a service from a program located in another computer on a network without having to understand the network's details.Continue Reading

• 5 best practices for remote development teams

  More developers than ever now work from home and must quickly adapt to remote life. Our experts explain how to proactively support the isolated members of your development team.Continue Reading

• The 5 essential elements of an RPA strategy

  RPA's benefits can be wiped out by an improper implementation. Give your business a sound RPA strategy and roadmap before you rush in.Continue Reading

• Getting to know the API proxy

  Explore the capabilities and practical uses for an API proxy, as well as examine the relationship between an API proxy and an API gateway.Continue Reading

• Use tokens for microservices authentication and authorization

  Independent and interoperable microservices require a permissions rethink, or you'll drive users crazy. Examine how tokens come into play for authentication and authorization.Continue Reading

• object-oriented programming (OOP)

  Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a computer programming model that organizes software design around data, or objects, rather than functions and logic.Continue Reading

• data dictionary

  A data dictionary is a collection of descriptions of the data objects or items in a data model for the benefit of programmers and others who need to refer to them.Continue Reading

• The 7 crucial RPA developer skills

  As enterprises move in on RPA, they need developers who can juggle both the business and technical sides of automation. Here are seven essential RPA developer skills.Continue Reading

• 5 core components of microservices architecture

  Before you build a microservices application, take a closer look at the components of the architecture and their capabilities.Continue Reading

• software

  Software is a set of instructions, data or programs used to operate computers and execute specific tasks.Continue Reading

• RESTful API (REST API)

  A RESTful API is an application program interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data.Continue Reading

• open API (public API)

  An open API, also known as a public API, is an application programming interface made publicly available to software developers.Continue Reading

• API management

  API management is the process of overseeing application program interfaces (APIs) in a secure, scalable environment.Continue Reading

• How to plan and execute a migration to microservices

  Ready for a migration to microservices? Here are the steps your development team can take to gradually transition your existing monolithic applications.Continue Reading

• The 3 tenets of microservice messaging patterns

  In a microservices architecture, there's no question that it's tricky to ensure effective service communication. Review these three tenets of microservice messaging patterns.Continue Reading

• 5 key software testability characteristics

  How do you design the software components for comprehensive testing? Start with these fundamentals of software testability -- from mocks and stubs to infrastructure-as-code.Continue Reading

• Get started with a hybrid microservices model

  Enterprises don't always have to choose between a microservices and monolithic architecture -- take a hybrid approach to experience the best of both worlds.Continue Reading

• middleware

  Middleware is software that is used to bridge the gap between applications and other tools or databases.Continue Reading

• What is a microkernel architecture, and is it right for you?

  Apps aren't limited to monolith and microservices architecture. Discover the benefits of a microkernel, common plugins and the apps best suited for this type of architecture.Continue Reading

• Break monoliths into microservices with 3 steps

  To decompose a monolith into microservices, you could take the application offline or halt all updates and rewrite everything. Or you could follow this practical approach.Continue Reading

• service-oriented architecture (SOA)

  Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a software development model that allows services to communicate across different platforms and languages to form applications.Continue Reading

• 4 fundamental microservices security best practices

  Despite the benefits, microservices will introduce profound security issues. We review the biggest microservices security challenges and four strategies used to combat them.Continue Reading

• Fundamental patterns for service discovery in microservices

  Service discovery is a huge part of managing a microservices-based application. We examine helpful service discovery patterns developers can use for clean service interaction.Continue Reading

• 5 big microservices pitfalls to avoid during migration

  Too many development teams make these failure-inducing mistakes during a switch to microservices. Learn where things go wrong, and the best ways to avoid problems.Continue Reading

• Popular microservices testing tools developers should know about

  Testing microservices gets messy as services are independent and communicate often. Here are tests necessary for microservices, and popular tools developers use to perform them.Continue Reading

• OAuth

  OAuth (Open Authorization) is an open standard authorization framework for token-based authorization on the internet.Continue Reading

• state management

  Application state management is the process of maintaining knowledge of an application's inputs across multiple related data flows that form a complete business transaction -- or a session -- to understand the condition of the app at any given ...Continue Reading

• A few fundamental microservices team structure strategies

  A microservices architecture can be quite a culture shock to unprepared enterprises. Here's how you can prepare your team to make microservices part of development processes.Continue Reading

• Experts explain how AWS Lambda works internally

  AWS Lambda introduces its fair share of benefits and problems. In case you missed it, here are three expert tips to help serverless functions find a comfortable place within your software systems.Continue Reading

• The 3 fundamentals of hybrid cloud architecture management

  When an enterprise chooses hybrid cloud, it needs to ensure the application harmonizes between the two environments. Review these three tips on architecture, integration and APIs.Continue Reading

• Follow these 10 fundamental microservices design principles

  The right design principles enable microservices adopters to build an application from autonomous, cohesive components that can scale seamlessly. Here are 10 to follow.Continue Reading

• How to improve API documentation with Swagger and OpenAPI

  Discover why developers should take advantage of Swagger tooling and the OpenAPI specification to streamline API design, documentation and management, especially for RESTful APIs.Continue Reading

• How the .NET Core platform advances cloud-based app deployment

  The capabilities of .NET Core keep developers interested. We break down the reasons why that's the case.Continue Reading

• API testing

  API testing is a type of software testing that analyzes an application program interface (API) to verify it fulfills its expected functionality, security, performance and reliability.Continue Reading

• How to test microservices for functionality and compliance

  If you're new to microservices testing practices, understand that traditional techniques won't work anymore. We examine how to approach four critical microservices tests.Continue Reading

• A guide to open source technology in application development

  The open source community continuously adapts to address the latest application development and deployment needs of organizations large and small. What can these tools do for you?Continue Reading

• WSO2

  WSO2 is a middleware vendor that sells open source application program interface (API) management software.Continue Reading

• 5 essential tips for logging microservices

  Creating a log system for distributed microservices is a task much easier said than done. Joydip Kanjilal offers five quick tips to shore up microservices logging processes.Continue Reading

• An introduction to combining CQRS and event sourcing

  Combining CQRS and event sourcing is a powerful way to maintain data speed and consistency for web-scale applications. Learn about the pros and cons of pairing these two processes.Continue Reading

• The enterprise architect's guide to application state management

  If your project is caught in a state-related conundrum, keep this guide handy when you need to untangle complex stateful and stateless app design and management predicaments.Continue Reading

• dependency injection

  In object-oriented programming (OOP) software design, dependency injection (DI) is the process of supplying a resource that a given piece of code requires.Continue Reading

• 6 quick facts about a Java microservices architecture

  Building microservices in Java may not be as simple as it seems. Here are six quick facts and tips that will help you with Java-based microservices development.Continue Reading

• The right (and wrong) way to think about code refactoring

  Code refactoring keeps code clean, sharp and efficient -- ideally without changing any of its functionality. Learn how to refactor code without interrupting your deployment pipeline.Continue Reading

• Scala: Lightweight functional programming for Java

  Scala provides a lightweight code option for Java development, but there could be a steep learning curve. Learn a little about Scala and if it's worth adopting.Continue Reading

• 3 ways to implement a functional programming architecture

  Functional programming, which came about as a highly theoretical, mathematical way to build software, has a place in APIs and other components of applications.Continue Reading

• The vital guide to modern programming languages and their uses

  Get to know programming languages that match modern development styles and architectures like mobile dev, serverless computing and microservices.Continue Reading

• Compare microservices deployment patterns for best strategy

  To solve pesky deployment woes, match your app to a microservices deployment pattern, like single service instance per host, multiple service instances per host or even serverless.Continue Reading

• Choose an event-processing architecture for an application

  Sift through the state control methods that exist for event-driven applications and see which architecture type is the best fit.Continue Reading

• Elixir functional programming enables concurrency, fault tolerance

  Developers can combine features of Erlang functional programming with a newer language, Elixir, which promises simplicity and fault-tolerant operations for distributed applications.Continue Reading

• To succeed with containerized applications, nail the details

  Containers can help an organization smoothly deploy applications, but the design aspects are complicated. Follow best practices to size and package app components.Continue Reading

• Challenge your wits on stateful and stateless concepts

  It's essential to understand the differences between stateful and stateless application characteristics, especially as distributed architectures grow in popularity. Test your knowledge on state concepts with this quiz.Continue Reading

• source code

  Source code is the fundamental component of a computer program that is created by a programmer. It can be read and easily understood by a human being.Continue Reading

• Serverless architecture diagram shows a new side of server-side

  Examine this serverless architecture diagram to see how development processes and the lifecycle of code differs from traditional server- and client-side development.Continue Reading

• Serverless testing in CI eliminates surprises in production

  Writing in a functional language without intuitive unit test coverage? Don't have control over resources or scaling? Here's how to make serverless testing work anyway.Continue Reading

• Think carefully about API language standards

  API language standards were few and far between in the past, but now cloud has made API standardization more important than ever. Learn what you need to know about these standards.Continue Reading

• user interface (UI)

  The user interface (UI) is the point of human-computer interaction and communication in a device.Continue Reading

• How to design APIs for hybrid cloud architecture

  Hybrid cloud is complex, particularly because it's the application -- not the server -- that manages API flows. Review some strategies for API management in a hybrid scenario.Continue Reading

• A serverless architecture tutorial for development teams

  Still emerging serverless technology offers some big advantages for development teams. This serverless architecture tutorial can help clarify the basics on where to start.Continue Reading

• 4 practical methods to increase service resilience

  Resiliency refers to the ability of your architecture to quickly predict, detect and mitigate potential performance failures. Here are four ways to fortify your software.Continue Reading

• REST (REpresentational State Transfer)

  REST (REpresentational State Transfer) is an architectural style for developing web services. REST is popular due to its simplicity and the fact that it builds upon existing systems and features of the internet's HTTP in order to achieve its ...Continue Reading

• What key messaging patterns should enterprise architects know?

  An unknowable number of interactions occur to enable digitization. Applications must pass these messages according to a design pattern, and these two categories suit enterprise-scale apps.Continue Reading

• class diagram

  A class diagram is an illustration of the relationships and source code dependencies among classes in the Unified Modeling Language (UML).Continue Reading

• application program interface (API)

  An application program interface (API) is code that allows two software programs to communicate with each other.Continue Reading

• Address goals with various enterprise architecture strategies

  Enterprise architects have a range of frameworks at their fingertips, but their role also entails creating consensus and understanding between business and technical stakeholders.Continue Reading

• How to create a stateful application with service brokers, DTP

  Complex state control issues come with the territory of stateful application design. Learn useful concepts that manipulate state and enable a stateful app to work as envisioned.Continue Reading

• Web services

  Web services are a type of internet software that use standardized messaging protocols and are made available from an application service provider’s web server for use by a client or other web-based programs.Continue Reading

• state diagram (state machine diagram or statechart diagram)

  A state diagram, also known as a state machine diagram or statechart diagram, is an illustration of the states an object can attain as well as the transitions between those states in the Unified Modeling Language (UML).Continue Reading

• What does it mean to be an enterprise API management architect?

  APIs can't be taken lightly, and that means the API architect's job is essential. Learn about essential API architect responsibilities and how organizations can make the most of APIs.Continue Reading

• When event-driven messaging is the right choice

  Event-driven messaging and API messaging both have their place in application architecture. In this Q&A, a Gartner analyst explains when you might choose one over the other.Continue Reading

• How to create an efficient container-based architecture

  Containers can introduce as many problems as they solve. In case you missed it, these four articles offer practical advice for consistent and structured container implementations.Continue Reading

• For API-based integration, a gateway is your friend

  Gateway technology makes API-based integration and microservices more secure, more efficient and more manageable. But beware API management pitfalls.Continue Reading

• When should I choose between serverless and microservices?

  Serverless and microservices work well together, but they still have their unique qualities. We review their main differences and where one might accomplish goals the other can't.Continue Reading

• How API gateways work -- and why you need them

  Learn the essentials of both API gateways and API design. Then, grasp how to use them to modernize monolithic apps and facilitate cloud-native microservices.Continue Reading

• Examine 4 hybrid cloud options from bursts to SaaS to CI/CD

  Hybrid cloud can provide an enterprise with a happy medium of cloud and on-premises benefits. Unsure where to begin? Try setting up hybrid web services, software services or development tools, and other practical approaches.Continue Reading

• Use the Ballerina language to ease into cloud microservices

  With native integration features, Ballerina promises to take care of lower-level technological considerations, while developers focus on building features.Continue Reading

• event

  An event, in a computing context, is an action or occurrence that can be identified by a program and has significance for system hardware or software.Continue Reading

• mobile application development

  Mobile application development is the set of processes and procedures involved in writing software for small, wireless computing devices such as smartphones or tablets.Continue Reading

• Quick quiz on creating APIs and managing APIs

  API management and development processes are complicated, and developers need to know their way around many types of APIs. Prove what you know about creating APIs and managing them.Continue Reading

• application service provider (ASP)

  An application service provider (ASP) is an old-fashioned name for a company that offers individuals or enterprises internet access to applications and related services.Continue Reading

• 3 ways Steeltoe opens the door to microservices in .NET

  The .NET framework doesn't leap to mind in a conversation about microservices development, but an open source project called Steeltoe could change that.Continue Reading

• How serverless works to usher in a new era of applications

  Dive into this architecture-centric guide on serverless computing that includes API management tips and advice on when to implement serverless microservices designs.Continue Reading

• SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)

  SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), which is based in Extensible Markup Language (XML), facilitates communication between application and operating systems.Continue Reading

• interoperability

  Interoperability (pronounced IHN-tuhr-AHP-uhr-uh-BIHL-ih-tee) is the ability of different systems, devices, applications or products to connect and communicate in a coordinated way, without effort from the end user.Continue Reading

• These tools help build microservices in Java

  Depending on the mission, developers need to align their tool choices with one of two paths for Java microservices. Here's what you need to know.Continue Reading

• An architect's guide to microservices security

  Whether you're new to distributed architecture or well underway with deployment, this guide on microservices security covers the basics through advanced tooling and strategies.Continue Reading

• Practical ways to implement function as a service

  Developers are ready to work with function as a service but still need some guidance. Learn about FaaS implementation models and which FaaS platform offering is for you.Continue Reading

• Should I use in-house or SaaS tools to develop APIs?

  It's perfectly viable to approach API development using either in-house or SaaS-provided tooling, but each path has its place. Learn how to choose between these two methods.Continue Reading

• The basics of polyglot persistence for microservices data

  Microservices can facilitate data management when they use a polyglot persistence strategy. See how the strategy works and how it can align to specific business needs.Continue Reading

• How to choose between serverless and containerized microservices

  Explore the intricacies of serverless microservices and container microservices to discover which development requirements are crucial to your ultimate decision.Continue Reading

• 5 basic SOA principles that still apply to microservices

  Microservices often replace SOA, but these two architecture styles are still similar. Here are five basic SOA principles that never went away.Continue Reading

• Understand business logic to fortify microservices design

  Before software teams introduce microservices, they must take a critical look at the business logic that frames their architecture because, as contexts change, so does the logic.Continue Reading

• How to manage distributed apps built on microservices

  Distributed applications can clearly benefit from the architectural benefits of microservices, but that has traditionally come with certain drawbacks. Discover how it's become easier to manage distributed applications built on microservices due to ...Continue Reading

• Microservices development will fail with monolithic mindset

  Enterprises that build microservices with traditional development tools and practices can run into problems in configuration and dependency management.Continue Reading

• Use API gateways to aid microservices communication, security

  Discover where API gateways fit into microservices architectures to help manage interactions between client applications and users.Continue Reading

• Achieve reactive microservices architecture with minimal effort

  Reactive systems philosophy lends itself to microservices architecture because it stresses four core principles of responsivity, resilience, elasticity and message-driven communication.Continue Reading