Pets vs. cattle – modern application infrastructures

Fabrizio Branca’s presentation “Pets vs. Cattle – modern application infrastructures” was surely one of the most unusual talks during the AOE Conference 2017. The term “Pets vs. Cattle” is generally attributed to Microsoft Manager Bill Baker, who used the analogy to describe the difference between a “scale-up” and a “scale-out” IT architecture strategy some six years ago. 

Accordingly, the expectations were that Fabrizio would provide his insights and views on “Modern Application Infrastructures”. This essentially involves three core questions:

• How do I create and set up modern application infrastructures?
• How do I run and deploy them?
• How do I utilize Continuous Integration?

So, why was his presentation so unusual and surprising? Especially with the apparently obvious topic “application infrastructures”?

Well, I’m a big fan of triads when writing; Fabrizio’s talk, however, is based on a tetrachord. I don’t want to pre-empt the surprise, so I can only recommend you take the time to watch the video. In a short 15 minutes, you will find out which similarities Benjamin Disraeli, the Boy Scouts, Tina Turner and wearing socks during meals share with the Agile Manifesto.

Fabrizio’s conclusion: “We shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously – good enough is good enough.”