May 1, 2024
Updated June 4, 2025
21 minute read
An Introduction to Application Services
Application services encompass a broad range of software-based solutions and functionalities that support, enhance, and manage enterprise applications throughout their lifecycle. At a high level, these services ensure that applications run efficiently, securely, and are readily available to users. They act as the critical plumbing and support structure that allows applications, whether they are customer-facing web platforms or internal business tools, to deliver their intended value. Think of them as the behind-the-scenes crew that makes sure the main performance – your applications – goes off without a hitch.
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Reading list
We've selected 31 books
that we think will supplement your
learning. Use these to
develop background knowledge, enrich your coursework, and gain a
deeper understanding of the topics covered in
Application Services.
Provides a broad introduction to the microservices architectural style. It covers the core concepts, benefits, and drawbacks, and offers practical advice on how to model, integrate, test, deploy, and monitor microservices. It's an excellent starting point for gaining a foundational understanding of a key application service pattern.
Based on extensive research, this book provides data-driven insights into the practices that drive high performance in technology organizations, particularly in the context of software delivery and operations. It scientifically validates many of the principles behind effective application service delivery and is considered a must-read for understanding the impact of technical practices on business outcomes.
This handbook provides a comprehensive guide to implementing DevOps practices, which are essential for the efficient and reliable delivery of application services. It covers principles, patterns, and practices for achieving faster releases, improved stability, and increased security. useful reference tool and commonly used by industry professionals.
A follow-up to 'Building Microservices,' this book focuses specifically on the challenging process of migrating from a monolithic application to a microservices architecture. It provides practical patterns and strategies for safely and effectively transforming existing systems into application services. It's highly relevant for organizations undergoing this transition.
This foundational book on continuous delivery is essential for understanding how to automate the software release process. Implementing continuous delivery is crucial for the rapid and reliable deployment of updates to application services. It provides a comprehensive guide to the principles and practices of this discipline.
Introduces the concept of evolutionary architecture, which is particularly relevant in the context of constantly changing application services. It provides guidance on designing systems that can adapt and evolve over time while maintaining important architectural characteristics. It addresses a contemporary challenge in the field.
While not solely focused on application services, this book is crucial for understanding the data challenges inherent in building and scaling modern applications. It delves into the fundamental principles of data systems, including storage, processing, and distributed consistency, which are essential for designing reliable application services. is highly valuable as additional reading to solidify an understanding of the data layer that underpins most application services.
A practical companion to the SRE book, this workbook provides hands-on examples and case studies for implementing SRE principles. It's a valuable resource for those looking to apply SRE practices to their application services and improve operational excellence.
While a fictional story, this book provides invaluable insights into the principles of DevOps and their impact on IT operations and application delivery. It highlights the importance of collaboration, flow, and feedback loops in delivering value through application services. This highly recommended read for understanding the cultural and operational aspects surrounding application services.
Introduces the discipline of Chaos Engineering, which is the practice of experimenting on a system in order to build confidence in that system's capability to withstand turbulent conditions in production. This is highly relevant for ensuring the resilience and reliability of application services in complex distributed environments.
Explores design patterns specifically for cloud-native applications, which are often delivered as application services. It covers topics like resilience, scalability, and observability in cloud environments. It's valuable for understanding contemporary approaches to building application services for the cloud.
Offers a deep dive into the practices and principles of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) as implemented at Google. SRE is highly relevant to ensuring the reliability and scalability of application services at scale. It provides valuable insights into managing complex distributed systems.
Authored by a co-creator of Kubernetes, this book explores design patterns for building distributed systems, which form the basis of many application services. It provides insights into creating scalable and reliable services using patterns applicable in modern cloud environments. The second edition includes new chapters on AI inference and training.
Classic in the field of designing resilient and stable applications. It focuses on the challenges of putting software into production and keeping it running smoothly, covering topics like stability patterns, dealing with failures, and capacity management. It provides essential background knowledge for anyone involved in the operational aspects of application services.
APIs are the interface through which many application services are consumed. focuses on the principles and practices of designing effective APIs that foster good relationships between service providers and consumers. It's highly relevant for anyone building or exposing application services.
Explores how team structure influences the ability to deliver software effectively. It proposes different team interaction patterns that can optimize flow and communication, which is particularly relevant for organizing teams around application services in a microservices environment. It provides valuable insights into the organizational aspects of application service delivery.
Given the mention of AWS in the course list, this book provides specific patterns and practices for building microservices on the AWS platform. It's a practical guide for those working within the AWS ecosystem and looking to leverage its services for application service development.
Given the mention of Kubernetes in the course list, this book is highly relevant as it provides a practical introduction to this popular container orchestration platform. Kubernetes is widely used for deploying and managing application services in modern environments. It's a useful resource for understanding the infrastructure layer for many contemporary application services.
Presents a collection of design patterns for building microservices-based applications using Java and Spring Boot.
Domain-Driven Design (DDD) provides a powerful approach to modeling complex software systems by focusing on the core business domain. This is highly relevant to designing effective application services, especially in microservices architectures where understanding service boundaries is critical. is more valuable as additional reading for those looking to deepen their understanding of service design principles.
This classic book by Martin Fowler provides a catalog of design patterns for enterprise applications. While some patterns predate the widespread adoption of microservices, the underlying principles of organizing business logic and data access remain highly relevant to designing larger application service systems. It's more valuable as a reference tool and for understanding the evolution of application architecture.
Presents fundamental principles of software architecture and design that are applicable across various types of applications, including those delivered as services. It emphasizes creating maintainable and testable codebases, which is crucial for the long-term success of application services. It provides a strong foundation in architectural thinking.
Another valuable resource for engineering leaders, this book offers a systems thinking approach to managing technology teams and organizations. It covers a wide range of topics relevant to creating effective environments for building and operating application services, including managing technical debt and organizational growth.
While not strictly technical, this book is highly valuable for those leading teams that build and operate application services. It covers essential management topics like team structure, technical debt, and dealing with complexity, all of which directly impact the success of application service delivery.
For more information about how these books relate to this course, visit:
OpenCourser.com/topic/na5q4h/application
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