Drawing architecture diagram of cloud native applications
There are different approach Solutions Architect uses to draw the architectures. Modern days solutions or application specially cloud native applications need a concrete diagram to proceed a well-planned development process. So I am planning to learn drawing architecture diagram of cloud native applications using standard methods and tools.
Traditional Application Architecture Diagrams
First, let me get familiar with Application Architecture Diagram. sOften diagram can bee seen is either using powerpoint tool. Most traditional diagrams consists of some rectangle, circle, db icon and connectors and text to describe what actually the rectangle means. For example, this diagram shows an example of web application architecture diagram.
Some commonly used diagrams are as following
- Archiecture diagram
- Network topology diagram
- Threat model diagram
- Dev-OPs diagram
Drawing modernize application architecture
The recipe for drawing architecture diagram for cloud-native applications consists of three ingredients, (i) a standard methodology (ii) standard practice and (iii) an easy, flexible tool.
IBM Garage methodology is a well-known and excellent methodology. For practice, IBM cloud reference architecture is a nice go-to place. IBM garage practice is well-defined and easy to follow. For tools, draw.io is my favourite.
Learning Path for drawing architecture diagram
The learning path for being master in drawing architecture diagram can be depicted as following image
Foundation
The first step is to get familiar with modern days cloud native application as well as enterprise application architecture is to study one of the established framework. My favourite place to start for that is IBM Cloud Architectures. This architecture center introduce different reference architecture for different component of a business solution. Here is a quote from IBM Cloud Architectures to get the feelings of “what is IBM cloud architecture center?”.
The Cloud Architecture Center provides practices for building apps on the cloud, across multiple clouds, and in hybrid environments where your cloud app links to your on-premises application. Start with your business problem, then select the best architecture to address your unique application, data, and workload requirements. IBM’s platform, based on open technologies, such as Linux and Kubernetes, enables you to securely deploy, run, and manage on the cloud of your choice.
Most people start to understand IBM Garage methodology as the foundation and then practice with reference architecture from IBM Cloud Architectures. However, I feel looking at the diagram first gives me an indication of target goal and then IBM Garage methodology helps me to describe the path to reach the goal.
IBM cloud architectural model
This model helps to understand different components of solutions of different category. This model gives a clear understanding about the modern cloud native applications structure .
The main goal of foundation is to get familiar with modern applications, technology, mandatory components, i.e. Security and compliance, Multicloud, Analytics by going through different reference architecture.
Once each of the block of IBM cloud architectural model is explored,I am ready for next step.
Experienced
Experienced and foundation stage can be swapped as mentioned before. On this stage , the goal is to get familiar with IBM Garage method. The best way to do that is to go through this course “Get started with architectures”. This course has a good mixture of theory and practice.
Expert
Now is the time to get hands dirty. So I need to start using draw.io and get myself familiar with draw.io. Practicing with IBM reference diagram is a good start.
Using draw.io
- draw.io can be used as online tool , it also has chrome plugins. draw.io is also available for offline uses.
- For offline use download it from here
- To draw a new diagram , open the app on machine , there will be two options
- create a diagram from scratch
- open existing diagram
Once clicking “Create New ”, it will present a selection of templates.
Under cloud tab, there are templates for IBM cloud, AWS , Azure cloud reference architecture
Each different template has its own set of diagrams. If one of the IBM cloud reference architecture diagram is chosen, all IBM specific symbol will be available for drawing .
It is also easy to search for diagram from the search bar
Draw diagram from template
Lets draw a diagram suing template. For this exercise, here is a nice blog about drawing threat model diagram. The used DFD diagrams can be found in github repository.
Master
For fun and achieve mastery in drawing diagrams, lets try some tricks as following
References
