Having trouble choosing your technology stack for your next software project? In order to help you in this process, I thought I would share a three-part series rationalizing the ‘technology stack’ that was used on Missing Link Technologies’ Prescriptive Decision Support System (PDSS) Project.
This IRAP funded project consisted of the following modules:
Core Acquisition Services
Core Data Services
Administration and Reporting Web Services
Data Analytics Pipeline and Big Data Services
I encourage you to take notes from our experience to help you choose the best technology stack for your upcoming project.
Part One
In this article, I will be focusing mainly on Core Services and how the ‘first level’ technology stack was chosen.
1. Define Highest Level Core Deliverables/Objectives
Must Run on Small Hardware such as Rasp. Pie
Must Run on Linux and Windows Operating System
Must be runnable in Cloud and scale both horizontally and vertically
Must be runnable in hybrid Cloud {public + private}
Support for leveraging key Apache Foundation Software
Must be of ‘Enterprise Quality’ - Centralized build - Automated execution of Unit Tests - Continuous Integration - Artifact versioning {Publishing and Retrieval}
Strongly typed language with clearly defined abstractions
Supports implementation of SOLID principles
Relatively easy to deploy
Minimize licensing costs
Provide good optics for company {external partners/academia}
Extensible with a clear pathway for handling fringe cases.
Supports creativity and experimentation without introducing unnecessary risk.
Able to implement stated business requirements.
2. Reflective Thinking
The first thing to notice is that the deliverables/requirements that I’ve listed are contextually relevant to my role as Chief Software Architect. My primary objectives are to ensure that our technology choices are fundamentally sound and contribute to satisfying the stated objectives.
The developer in me wants to list things like tail recursion, implicitly typed variables, all exceptions are unchecked, of instead of instance of…. but these nice to haves do not really contribute to stated objectives. Having said that, I am sympathetic to developers as 50+ % of my work hours are still devoted to writing software. For what it’s worth I will do my best to keep things progressive and interesting in other areas of development!
3. Technology Stack Part 1 – Decision Time
This is perhaps the easiest decision to make. In my professional opinion, the only 2 valid choices for enterprise server-side development are Java and C#. One could make a case for C++ and VB.Net but they were immediately discarded as not being relevant.
This winner is Java Open JDK 1.8!
Bummer, as C#, especially DotNet Core 3.0 is a superior development experience….is like Java + Maven but better and gone are atrocious project file, solution file, and confusing NuGet package junk. I also much prefer using the free visual studio code over the heavy and clunky Visual Studio for Professionals.
The rationale for choosing JAVA Open JDK 1.8:
By far best support for Apache APIS
Great driver for Maria DB
JDK Runs great on Raspbian
Alpine Image for Docker is top-notch
It is a better language choice for Academia. {this is changing though}
Statically Typed Language
Junit + Maven + JFrog + Git Lab is rock solid.{msbuild users never complain about maven}
Configuring Apache Stuff prepares you for configuring Kubernetes stuff
Encourages use of Linux Operating System
Simplifies runtime requirements as many supporting services are written in Java as well
Free IntelliJ IDE is quite good.
Can program in Scala and Kotlin which compiles to java byte code
Identified Risk Areas
Oracle’s new JDK licensing model may be problematic but MLT should be ok if we do all development, testing and production releases using OPEN JDK 1.8
Developer complaints
Stay Tuned for Part 2
In Part 2 of this series where I’ll define the next level of technical requirements such as which database technology(ies), MQ, DI container that we are going to use within our growing technology stack.
Chief Software Architect
Missing Link Technologies
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