1. Workflow
orchestrators make
Asynchronous SOA
Easy

2. What is asynchronous SOA?
● Asynchronous SOA refers to a design where services communicate without requiring
an immediate response.
● It allows the client to send a request and continue with other tasks, receiving the
response at an unspecified later time.
● This approach enhances system performance and scalability as services can operate
independently and in parallel.

3. Asynchronous SOA - Behind the Scenes
● When you order food on your favorite food delivery app, it triggers concurrent,
asynchronous processes: order confirmation, payment processing, restaurant
notification, food preparation, and delivery.
● These steps, while appearing sequential to you, are processed concurrently in the
system

5. Challenges of
building
asynchronous SOA

6. State Management
● In an event-driven, asynchronous SOA like a food delivery app, managing state is
complex.
● As the order moves through stages - placed, confirmed, prepared, and delivered - each
stage is triggered by events and runs independently.
● Ensuring accurate state management across these dispersed, independent processes
is challenging, but vital to avoid inaccuracies and maintain a seamless user experience.

8. Resiliency
● Asynchronous systems must be resilient to
handle errors, such as a declined payment or a
missed restaurant notification.
● The system should adapt, adjust, and continue
functioning, just like a football team carrying on
after a bad pass..

9. Traceability
● Traceability is crucial in complex asynchronous systems like Uber Eats, involving
multiple components like user app, restaurant system, delivery app, and backend
services.
● Troubleshooting issues requires effective tracing mechanisms to maintain system
efficiency.

10. Maintainability
● Asynchronous systems, due to their complexity, can be challenging to maintain as they
evolve and scale.
● Adding new features or onboarding new team members should not require significant
system changes.

11. Workflow
orchestrators

12. Streamlining State Management
● Workflow orchestrators alleviate the challenge of state management in asynchronous
systems.
● Orchestrators meticulously oversee the stages and transitions of a process.
● Each state is properly tracked and managed, ensuring accurate and orderly flow.
● This eliminates chaos and potential inconsistencies in state transitions.

14. Enhancing Resiliency
● Workflow orchestrators offer built-in mechanisms to handle errors and enhance
resiliency.
● They provide intelligent error handling strategies, such as automatic retries and
backoffs.
● Orchestrators prevent process halts and enable system recovery in case of failures.
● This robustness ensures uninterrupted operations, even in the face of unpredicted
errors.

15. Enabling Traceability
● Workflow orchestrators simplify traceability in complex asynchronous systems.
● They provide comprehensive logging and monitoring capabilities.
● Each stage and transition within the system is made visible and traceable.
● This aids in troubleshooting, debugging, and identifying bottlenecks or issues.

16. Facilitating Maintainability
● Workflow orchestrators ease the challenge of maintaining complex asynchronous
systems.
● Clearly defined, code-based workflows make the system more understandable and
modifiable.
● Changes and updates can be implemented without disrupting the entire system.
● Adding new features or modifying existing ones becomes more manageable and
efficient.

17. Empowering Development Productivity
● Workflow orchestrators empower developers by abstracting complexities of
asynchronous systems.
● They provide a higher-level programming model, simplifying development efforts.
● Developers can focus on business logic and core functionalities rather than
infrastructure concerns.
● This enhances development productivity, accelerates time-to-market, and fosters
innovation.

18. Workflow
orchestrator
options

19. Apache Airflow
● Apache Airflow is a widely-used open-source workflow orchestrator.
● It allows you to define workflows as code using Python, providing flexibility and ease
of understanding.
● Airflow has a vibrant community and extensive plugin support for seamless
integration with various services.
● It excels in data engineering tasks and scenarios where the steps of workflows may
change frequently.

20. Argo
● Argo is a Kubernetes-native workflow orchestrator, specifically designed for
cloud-native environments.
● It leverages the power of Kubernetes to manage the execution of workflows.
● Each step in an Argo workflow is treated as a container, allowing for easy adoption of
containerization benefits.
● Argo is well-suited for organizations using Kubernetes and seeking scalability, fault
tolerance, and flexibility in their workflows.

21. Temporal
● Temporal is an open-source workflow orchestrator that focuses on reliability and
simplicity.
● It allows developers to define workflows as code, eliminating the need for managing
JSON or YAML files.
● Temporal offers long-duration execution, exactly-once semantics, and built-in
handling of failures and interruptions.
● It excels in managing stateful and long-running workflows while ensuring reliability
and ease of development.

22. AWS Step Functions
● AWS Step Functions is a fully managed workflow orchestrator provided by Amazon
Web Services (AWS).
● It simplifies the orchestration of complex, multi-step applications using visual
workflows.
● Step Functions seamlessly integrate with other AWS services, making it a suitable
choice for organizations already utilizing the AWS ecosystem.
● It offers scalability, fault tolerance, and ease of use, empowering developers to build
robust and scalable applications.

23. Choose the Right Workflow Orchestrator
● When selecting a workflow orchestrator, consider factors such as the complexity of
tasks, scalability requirements, fault tolerance, integrations with existing
infrastructure, and convenience of the programming model.
● Each orchestrator offers unique features and benefits, catering to specific use cases
and preferences.
● Evaluate whether a fully managed service like AWS Step Functions or Google Cloud
Composer aligns with your organization's needs or if the flexibility of an open-source
solution like Apache Airflow, Argo, or Temporal better suits your requirements.

24. Harness the Power of Workflow
Orchestrators
● Regardless of the choice of workflow orchestrator, leveraging these powerful tools
helps simplify the complexities of asynchronous systems.
● Each orchestrator offers unique features and advantages, enabling developers to build
resilient, scalable, and maintainable applications.
● Harnessing the power of workflow orchestrators empowers organizations to deliver
better services, optimize development processes, and stay ahead in today's dynamic
technology landscape.