27. Architectures for the Edge

With Hong-Mei Chen

Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.

—John Stuart Mill

In this chapter we discuss the place of architecture in edge-dominant systems and discuss how an architect should approach building such systems. An edge-dominant system is one that depends crucially on the inputs of users for its success.

What would Wikipedia be without the encyclopedic entries contributed by users? What would YouTube be without the contributed videos? What would Facebook and Twitter be without their user communities? ...

Get Software Architecture in Practice, Third Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.