Connect Judiciously but Thoughtlessly

There are three common and potentially overlapping scenarios when connecting applications and services to each other and to fixed infrastructure services: connecting within a secure trusted network behind a DMZ (Demilitarized Zone, a perimeter network), connecting over an untrusted network, and connecting over a transitory or unstable network, whether trusted or not. Each organization involved in providing or enabling that access will have its own processes for provisioning and managing that connectivity. However, all of them serve a purpose orthogonal to the needs of an application architecture.

This chapter discusses a point of view for connectivity that begins and ends with the needs of the application and those that maintain it to optimize the speed and agility of developers and SRE (Site Reliability Engineering, IT Operations using software engineering practices) professionals.

In this chapter, we will cover the following main topics...