Welcome to the InfoQ Software Architects' Newsletter! Each month, we bring you essential news and experience from industry peers on emerging patterns and technologies.

This month, we focus on the topic of "Cloud Computing: From Edge to PaaS and IaaS". The core topics of cloud computing currently span across the entire "diffusion of innovation" graph in our most recent Architecture and Design InfoQ Trends Report. The latest DevOps and Cloud InfoQ Trends Report (July 2021) provides additional insight for architects working in this space. Key challenges remain, including designing scalable systems, the build vs. buy decision, and how to plan for multi-cloud adoption.

News

Recap of AWS re:Invent 2021

In early December on InfoQ, Renato Losio summarized the often industry-defining AWS re:Invent event. After one year as a virtual-only event, re:Invent was back with its in-person Las Vegas residence. There were multiple sessions and keynotes, including a first keynote for the new CEO Adam Selipsky.

Acknowledging the 200+ existing services, the sometimes confusing API designs, and the complexity of a large portfolio, Werner Vogels, CTO at Amazon, joked during his keynote: “You have asked for this, it is basically your fault!” AWS announced new features and improvements, with a focus more on packaged solutions than new primitives.

The full InfoQ news item provides a review of the main announcements impacting compute, database, storage, networking, machine learning, and development.

Kubernetes Proceeding with Deprecation of Dockershim in Upcoming 1.24 Release

In a recent InfoQ news post, Matt Campbell stated that Kubernetes is proceeding with deprecation and removal of dockershim in the upcoming 1.24 release. Workflows and systems that make use of the Docker Engine as the container runtime for their Kubernetes cluster will need to migrate before moving to the 1.24 release. The 1.23 release will retain dockershim and will be supported for another year.

For readers looking for additional context, last year on the InfoQ podcast Wes Reisz sat down with Phil Estes to learn more about the dockershim deprecation.

Cloudflare Report Highlights Staggering Increase in DDoS Attacks in Q4 2021

In keeping with its custom of releasing a quarterly trends report on DDoS attacks, Cloudflare has just published its new findings for Q4 2021, which show a 95% increase in L3/4 DDoS attacks and record-breaking levels of ransom DDoS attacks.

A specific version of DDoS attacks analyzed by Cloudflare is aimed to have the targeted organization pay a ransom to stop the DDoS attack. These kinds of attacks increased by 29% YoY and 175% QoQ, says Cloudflare, with over 20% of Cloudflare customers responding to a survey reporting they received a ransom letter at some point in Q4.

Google's Network-Based Threat Detection Service Cloud IDS is Now Generally Available

Recently, Google announced the general availability of its Cloud IDS for network-based threat detection. On InfoQ, Steef-Jan Wiggers wrote that this core network security offering detects network-based threats and helps organizations meet compliance standards that call for an intrusion detection system. New enhancements in the GA release include service availability in all regions, autoscaling, an automated daily update of detection signatures, support for customers' HIPAA compliance requirements, ISO27001 certification, and integration with Google’s security analytics platform Chronicle.

Microsoft Previews Enterprise-Grade Edge Functionality to Optimize Azure Static Web Apps

Azure Static Web Apps are a serverless web app hosting service for static web apps, which Microsoft manages. The company has announced a preview of Azure Static Web Apps enterprise-grade edge powered by Azure Front Door, enabling faster page loads, enhanced security, and increased reliability for global apps with no configuration or additional code required.

Case Study

A Cloud-Native Architecture for a Digital Enterprise

In this article, Lakmal Warusawithana, senior director of solutions architecture at WSO2, argued that by becoming a digital enterprise, a company can integrate and expose its business capabilities as APIs by digitizing the entire value chain.

API-led integration provides a technical platform to enable enhanced digital experiences for consumers, but leaders must realize that agility, flexibility, and scalability are key to becoming a successful digital enterprise.

Cloud-native applications are all about dynamism, and microservice architecture (MSA) is critical to accomplish this goal. MSA helps to divide and conquer by deploying smaller services focusing on well-defined scopes. These smaller services need to integrate with different software as a service (SaaS) endpoints, legacy applications, and other microservices to deliver business functionalities.

While microservices expose their capabilities as simple APIs, ideally, consumers should access these as integrated, composite APIs to align with business requirements. A combination of API-led integration platforms and cloud-native technologies helps to provide secured, managed, observed, and monetized APIs that are critical for a digital enterprise.

This article describes a vendor/technology-neutral reference architecture for a cloud-native digital enterprise and this can be mapped into different cloud-native platforms (Kubernetes and service mesh), cloud providers (Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and Google GCP), and infrastructure services.

This content is an excerpt from a recent InfoQ article written by Lakmal Warusawithana, "A Cloud-Native Architecture for a Digital Enterprise".

To get notifications when InfoQ publishes content on these topics, follow "cloud computing", "cloud architecture", and "cloud-native" on InfoQ.

Missed a newsletter? You can find all of the previous issues on InfoQ.

Upcoming events

For practitioners by practitioners

QCon London Software Conference (April 4-6): What are the software emerging trends you should focus on in 2022?

QCon London (April 4-6, 2022) Software Development Conference focuses on emerging software trends and innovations shaping the industry. Attend in-person and experience a curated learning journey set by senior software leaders. Level-up your skills with 15 technical tracks, 75 technical talks and 4 Keynotes from early adopters world-class practitioners driving innovation and change in software development. Save £135 if you book your spot before Feb 7th.

QCon Plus Online Software Conference (May 10-20): Get clarity on the use-cases of software emerging trends you can adopt.

At QCon Plus (May 10-20, 2022) Online Software Conference you will find practical inspiration (not product pitches) from software leaders deep in the trenches creating software, scaling architectures and fine-tuning their technical leadership to help you make the right decisions. Get inspired on what’s next for your team and roadmap with real-world ideas. Save $250 if you register before February 7th.

InfoQ Live One-Day Online Event (Feb 22nd): Learn how you can overcome security challenges in the Cloud and in Serverless architectures.

At InfoQ Live (February 22, 2022) we’ve brought together world-class DevSecOps & Modernizing Application Security professionals to give you practical advice on how to resolve your Security in Cloud Native Architecture challenges. Save your spot and experience 2 technical talks, live answers to your questions with facilitated Q&As, and optional roundtable discussions. Join us on Tuesday, February 22, 2022 (Tickets only $19.95).

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