API Gateway An API gateway is an API management tool that sits between a client and a collection of backend services. According to NginX, an API gateway takes all API calls from clients, then routes them to the appropriate microservice with request routing, composition, and protocol translation. Typically it handles a request…

Json Web Token (JWT) JSON Web Token (JWT) is an open standard (RFC 7519) that defines a compact and self-contained way for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object. This information can be verified and trusted because it is digitally signed. …

OAuth 2.0 OAuth 2.0 is the industry-standard protocol for authorization. OAuth 2.0 focuses on client developer simplicity while providing specific authorization flows for web applications, desktop applications, mobile phones, and living room devices. This specification and its extensions are being developed within the IETF OAuth Working Group. Authentication vs Authorization In simple terms, authentication is…

This is in continuation to: Concurrency in Java: Executor Service (Part 1) Memory Model in Java The Java memory model used internally in the JVM divides memory between thread stacks and the heap. Each thread running in the Java virtual machine has its own thread stack. The thread call stack contains information about the…

Overview The Java ExecutorService is a JDK API that allows the user to pass tasks to be executed by a pool of threads asynchronously. It can create and maintain a reusable pool of threads for executing submitted tasks. The service also manages a queue, which is used to queue up tasks…

Overview Publisher/subscriber messaging, or pub/sub messaging, is a form of asynchronous service-to-service communication used in serverless and microservices architectures. In a pub/sub model, any message published to a topic is immediately received by all of the subscribers to the topic. …

What are WebSockets? How are they different from traditional network protocols? — Overview The WebSocket protocol created new possibilities for communication over the Internet and opened the door to a truly realtime web. WebSockets were first described in 2008 and have enjoyed wide browser support since around 2010. Before WebSockets came along, the “realtime” web existed, but it was difficult to achieve…

A guide for using GitHub Copilot to write code faster. — What is GitHub Copilot? According to GitHub, “GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer that helps you write code faster and with less work. GitHub Copilot draws context from comments and code, and suggests individual lines and whole functions instantly.” It is powered by OpenAI Codex, which is an AI system created by OpenAI…

What is gRPC? Why is it important? — What is gRPC? gRPC is a modern open-source high-performance Remote Procedure Call (RPC) framework that can run in any environment. It was developed by Google and is now part of the Cloud Native Computation Foundation(CNCF). It was developed by Google in 2015. Most people assume the ‘g’ to mean Google, but it does…