Mark Richards

Presentations

The Art of Problem Solving

I commonly think of those of us in the IT industry as problem solvers. Whether developer, designer, or architect, we are all presented with problems and work to find a way to solve them, usually through technology. In my opinion this is what makes this industry so much fun. Let's face it - we all love challenges. Sometimes, however, the problems we have to solve are hard - really hard. So how do you go about solving really hard problems? That's what this session is about - Heuristics, the art of problem solving. In this session you will learn how to approach problems and also learn some the common techniques for solving them effectively. So put on your thinking cap and get ready to solve some easy, fun, and hard problems.

Agenda:

• the checklist
• visual representations
• you know what happens when you assume...
• you gotta start somewhere
• hey! keep it clean!
• working backwards
• we should take the trail to the left...I think...
• the world is flat

Integration Architecture: Concepts and Patterns

Very few applications stand alone anymore. Rather, they are combined together to form holistic systems that perform complex business functions. One of the big challenges when integrating applications is choosing the right integration styles and usage patterns. In this session we will explore various techniques and patterns for application integration, and look at what purpose and role open source integration hubs such as Camel and Mule play in the overall integration architecture space (and how to properly use them!). Through actual integration scenarios and live coding examples using Apache Camel you will learn which integration styles and patterns to use for your system and how open source integration hubs play an part in your overall integration strategy

Agenda:

• Introduction: the need for integration
• Integration Styles: pros, cons, and when to use
• Integration Hubs: why do we need them?
• Integration Hub Building Blocks
• Understanding the different roles of an integration hub
• Common Integration Patterns

AMQP: From Concept To Code

Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) is a new way of looking at messaging that is quickly gaining in popularity and use, particularly in the financial services industry. Unlike JMS, which defines a standard API across platforms, AMQP defines a standard wire-level protocol across languages and platforms, finally making true cross-platform messaging a reality. In this session I will start by describing exactly what AMQP is and what problems it specifically solves (that JMS can't!). I will then describe the basic architecture and how AMQP routes messages, and then, through live interactive coding, demonstrate how to build a simple producer and consumer using RabbitMQ to send and receive AMQP messages. We will also take a brief look at other aspects of AMQP such as performance and how to guarantee that the message reaches a consumer.

Agenda: - What is AMQP and what problems does it solve? - How AMQP works: exchanges, bindings, queues, and routing - AMQP exchange types - AMQP message structure - AMQP Performance characteristics - Sending and receiving messages using RabbitMQ - How to guarantee message delivery in AMQP

Know Your Enemy: Understanding AntiPatterns

The ancient Chinese warrior Sun Tzu taught his men to "know your enemy" before going into battle. For us, the same thing is knowing and understanding anti-patterns - things that we repeatably do that produce negative results. Anti-patterns are used by developers, architects, and managers every day, and are one of the main factors that prevent progress and success. In this session we will look at some of the more common and significant software development anti-patterns. Through coding and design examples, you will see how these anti-patterns emerge, how to recognize when the antipattern is being used, and most importantly, how to avoid them. Although most of the coding examples will be in Java, this is a technology-agnostic session. Remember, like motorcycles, anti-patterns are everywhere - so be careful out there!

Agenda

• Know Your Enemy: An Introduction to AntiPatterns
• Know Yourself: Human Traits That Cause AntiPatterns
• A Tour of the Dark Side: Common Software Development AntiPatterns

For each anti-pattern covered in this session we will look at the symptoms of the anti-pattern, what the effects are, and some techniques on how to avoid the anti-pattern.

High Performance Messaging

If you need your messaging-based systems to be fast - really fast - then this is the session to attend. In this session I will introduce and demonstrate some relatively simple tips and tricks to get the best performance and throughput from your messaging system. Through live code demonstrations I will show the impact of both configuration and design changes using ActiveMQ, HornetQ, and WebSphereMQ. So buckle up those seat belts - its going to be a fast ride.

Agenda:

• Spring-based Messaging Performance Techniques
• JMS Models and Performance: P2P and Pub/Sub
• Competing Consumer Limits and Locations
• Using Multiple Queues with Competing Consumers
• Optimizing Single Consumer Scenarios
• Guaranteed Delivery and Performance