The one and only Kevin Hoffman, our resident polymath and author of numerous tech books including "Cloud Native Go" and "Programming WebAssembly with Rust," challenges the status quo in his latest blog post. His key insight? Large-scale distributed systems are inherently complex, but they don't have to be complicated.
Kevin illustrates this with a sharp comparison between NATS and Kubernetes:
| Aspect | NATS (Complex) | Kubernetes (Complicated) |
|---|---|---|
| Core Design | Self-forming clusters | Intricate orchestration |
| Scalability | Organic-growth | Explicit changes and migrations |
| Learning curve | Gradual | Steep |
| Extensibility | Composable servives | Ecosystem thriving on complexity |
Drawing from his vast experience architecting systems for Fortune 500 companies and advising startups, Kevin argues for embracing simplicity in design, offering practical tips for building powerful yet maintainable systems.
Intrigued?
- Dive into the full article and join the conversation on simplifying complexity in software design.
- Catch Kevin’s talk “Nothing but NATS - Going Beyond Cloud Native” at KubeCon North America 2024.
- Find out if your system is complex or complicated via architecture review with the bright engineers at Synadia including Kevin.
