Beyond the broker: governing your EDA for real-time business value
Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) is not a new concept, its roots go back to the 1980s. Yet, today it’s at the forefront of IT strategy, evolving from a niche integration pattern into a powerful enabler of what can best be described as "real-time business."
But what does it take to successfully adopt and scale an event-driven approach? We sat down with Emil Zegers, Senior Solutions Engineer at Solace, to discuss the evolution of EDA, the critical role of governance, and why our perspective on data silos might be all wrong.
The data silo paradox: why you should connect, not destroy
For years, the rallying cry of data modernization has been to "break down the data silos." But Emil offers a provocative counterpoint: he loves data silos.
His reasoning is simple but profound: data silos are not just collections of isolated data, they are often built around expert applications where highly skilled people manage critical business processes. They represent deep domain knowledge. The problem isn't the existence of the silo, it's the inability to exchange data with it.
Instead of focusing on destruction, we should focus on connection. This is where EDA shines. By decoupling data from applications, we can:
- Allow expert systems to publish events about important business facts.
- Enable other applications to subscribe to this data in a secure, governed way.
- Preserve the integrity and expertise of the core system while making its data available for reuse across the enterprise.
What does "real-time" really mean?
Another term that often gets thrown around is "real-time." But real-time means different things in different contexts. For high-frequency trading in capital markets, it means nanoseconds. For a retail business responding to a new marketing campaign, it could be seconds or minutes.
The true value of real-time isn't just about raw speed. It’s about enabling just-in-time operations.
Consider the example of an airport. If passenger data from check-in and security is available in real-time, an airline can offer a last-minute lounge upgrade to a passenger after they've cleared security but before they've reached their gate. A batch process that runs every half hour would miss that window of opportunity.
Real-time data opens the door to new use cases and revenue streams by allowing you to act at precisely the right moment.
The shift to governance and a "design-first" strategy
As organizations mature in their EDA journey, the conversation inevitably shifts. The initial focus on the technical capabilities of the event broker like performance, scalability, and reliability gives way to a more pressing need: governance and management.
As data is increasingly treated as a strategic asset, it requires proper lifecycle management. This has led to the rise of a "design-first" strategy for event-driven architecture. Instead of developers creating topics and events ad-hoc, the process starts with design:
- Model the Events: Business and technical teams collaborate to design the event-driven flows, applications, and schemas, often in a visual, whiteboard-like environment.
- Attach the Details: Topics, queue subscriptions, and access permissions are attached to the design.
- Deploy from the Design: The designed model is used to automatically provision the runtime environment, ensuring that the implementation perfectly matches the agreed-upon architecture.
This approach allows you to manage your events as first-class citizens, promoting them from development to production and managing their entire lifecycle just as you would with your software.
Integration as a business enabler
Perhaps the most significant change is the role of integration itself. It's no longer a reactive, back-office function, the "snackbar" where teams came to order a queue or an endpoint. Today, integration, and specifically EDA, is a strategic part of the business.
Modern eventing platforms provide the flexibility to start small with a high-impact use case, prove its value, and scale quickly without being locked into a rigid structure. Integration has become a true business enabler, connecting the core of the business directly to its strategic goals.
Ready to move beyond the technical details and build a governed, scalable, event-driven enterprise? Let's talk about the strategy that will get you there.
