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Been thinking about glue systems a bunch - the platform I'm working on (Inngest [0]) solves this kind of problem. I think "glue systems" can be generalized by
by tonyhb 5y ago
Been thinking about glue systems a bunch - the platform I'm working on (Inngest [0]) solves this kind of problem.
I think "glue systems" can be generalized by saying: systems that consolidate events, and react to events in real-time. Most everything that happens in your system is an event, and things need to react to this. For example:
- A glue system will almost certainly plumb stripe events info a billing system, plus other systems for things like failed payments.
This system shouldn't go down (HA). It should be able to react to changes easily - as biz ops change frequently. It should be auditable, easy to debug, and easy to deploy.
The first pass at this in startups is usually... just doing stuff in the API request, or building webhook endpoints that manage this for you within the API. Then, you might add Sidekiq, or SQS/Lambda. Then, you might build out event-driven architecture using SQS/Kafka. It's kind of a pain, and still it's not easy to grok, debug, or architect.
Inngest handles all of this for you, though. It consolidates events from every system (internal and external, via APIs, webhooks, oauth, etc.) and then allows you to run DAG-based workflows in real-time whenever events are received. With full logging, debugging (step-over debugging), retries, user-auditing, changelogs, version control, etc.
I think that event-driven systems and glue-based systems overall haven't had much love in the developer UX, but I'm hopeful we can change that. If you're interested in using us or working with us on building the platform, ping me :)
[0] https://www.inngest.com https://www.inngest.com
- tut-urut-utut 5y agoSo many words to just say ESB. I know it's not fancy and falling out of fashion, but what you describe here is what different ESB/MIddleware systems have been doing for ages.
- tonyhb 5y agoYeah, agree, there's a large sector of overlap. Basically that, but modern, and built for engineers with a polished experience.
- lukeramsden 5y agoInngest looks very cool - is there any chance of this being an "open-source SaaS" / open-core type thing like, for example, TimescaleDB or Temporal? Would love to contribute to something like this, but not as paid employment.
- tonyhb 5y agoYeah, soon! I need to redo some of the DAG-based workflow logic to rip out our internal scheduler (we have two: internal and nomad via firecracker/gvisor). Once that's done and I've refactored some stuff I'm planning on opening up the core runner. Our FoundationDB persistence we're working on may likely remain closed - we will provide an interface which allows you to persist stuff and a psql adapter :) That'll likely happen early next year.
- fortydegrees 5y agoLove your landing page. I know exactly what you do and how you can be of value for me without even scrolling. Well done!