The document discusses Martin Buhr's views on API strategies and technologies. It contains three rants about serverless, GraphQL, and microservices. In the rants, Martin argues that these technologies are often overused when simpler solutions would suffice. He believes serverless is best for prototypes and simple tasks, GraphQL introduces complexity by coupling services, and microservices should only be used when strict requirements for scale and availability demand it. Martin advocates for solid, boring design practices and stripping domains into microservices only when needed rather than taking a microservices-first approach.

1. June 2015 Tyk
Your API Strategy
Why Boring is Best
Martin Buhr
CEO @Tyk Technologies
https://tyk.io
@martinbuhr
lonelycode@fosstodon.org

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Introduce yourself, Martin…

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4. June 2015 Tyk
Tyk API Management
APIs for the Modern Enterprise

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Do the thing!

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Varick says: Boring is good!

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Boring is dependable…
• Large talent pool
• Well distributed seniority
• Increased supply = affordable
• Widespread best practice
• Boring is good for team churn

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Every team has one of these…

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Rant #1: Serverless

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Deploy your functions to a third-party
cloud and have them run only when needed,
then build you entire application this way…
What is it?

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“Write once deploy anywhere”
A common phrase:
- Unnamed framework developer, 2009

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Lock in?

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Where have we heard that before?

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Where have we heard that before?

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Where have we heard that before?

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… yes, yes they did.
Did someone say lock-in?

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More like: buy more servers!
Serverless?

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So what does the grumpy one say?
Serverless is great for:
• Throwaway prototypes
• Repeated reporting tasks
• Nano-services

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And what is the boring way?
A server-less, can be a server more
As Lambda and cloud FN do not bore
But solid design
Yes, SOLID design, will be forever!
Generic abstractions to the dark side lead
And there the sharks of lock-in feed
So take the step, but choose wisely
For to shrink your bill is mighty unlikely…

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So when it comes to serverless…

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Rant #2: GraphQL

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Add a SQL layer in front of your decoupled services
to recouple the decoupled layer into a single
interface to make interface developers happy…

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Add a SQL layer in front of your decoupled services
to recouple the decoupled layer into a single
interface to make interface developers happy…

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DB 1
Svc 1 Scv 1 Svc 2
DB 2
Svc 3
GW GW GW GW
A simple microservice setup…

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DB 1
Svc 1 Scv 1 Svc 2
DB 2
Svc 3
GW GW GW GW
A simple microservice setup…

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DB 1
Svc 1 Scv 1 Svc 2
DB 2
Svc 3
GW GW GW GW
Now with GraphQL
GraphQL Query Proxy

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DB 1
Svc 1 Scv 1 Svc 2
DB 2
Svc 3
GW GW GW GW
Now with GraphQL!
GraphQL Query Proxy

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You gone messed up now!
• GraphQL Proxy introduces a single point of failure
• You now have duplicate data schemas!
• If a service fails, the whole query will fail
• Why are you treating your services like a database?
• You can’t predict all code paths!

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So what does the grumpy one say?
GraphQL is great for:
• Interface developers
… no… no that’s all. Please stop.

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What is the boring way?
API Design is not application design
But!
Good application design can yield good API
design

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Rant #3: Microservices

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Increase the complexity of your application
and runtime environment by an order of
magnitude with this one simple trick!

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An “ideal” microservice setup…

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Ok… so… what?
This is a shopping cart, that requires:
• Two database types
• Two programming languages
• A distributed schema
• Hopefully consistent?
WTF are you using Microservices for this??

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So what does the grumpy one say?
• Do you have insane scale?
• Is your availability really that bad?
• Do you have the resource to dedicate a
*team* per service?
• Have you hired a microservice expert to help
you?

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What is the boring way?
There is nothing new here:
• Build a monolith, but build it well
• Strip away domains into Microservices
when you *really* need it
• Don’t run microservice-first, because you
will triple your GTM time

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Thank you!
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Martin Buhr
CEO @Tyk Technologies
https://tyk.io
@martinbuhr
lonelycode@fosstodon.org