Akka.NET: The Future of Distributed Programming inqconrio.com/.../the_future_of_distributed_programming_in...2015.pdfActor Model : The Future of Distributed Programming. ... STREAM

@petabridge Petabridge.com

Actor Model : The Future of

Distributed Programming

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http://petabridge.com/





A Business Story








Successful Product








Struggling Business








A Radical New Product








Allow our customers to start

conversations with the specific

types of users.








Had to be done in real-time for

best results.








Implementation








Prototype 1: HTTP +

Database








(Read after Write)








Theory








Reality








What now?








I have no idea how to build this

product








And no vocabulary to describe

my problem








Desperation








Breakthrough!








I had STATEFUL problem!








But HTTP is a stateless protocol








Breakthrough #2








I had STATEFUL, REACTIVE,

STREAM PROCESSING

problem!








Akka and the Actor Model








Reasoning








OF COURSE IT DOESN'T








.... Port everything to JVM?








Lesser of Two Evils








6 Months Later








Petabridge








The actor model creates new

possibilities for developers








The New Reality

• Data is trivially

cheap to collect

and store

• Users accept

nothing less than

excellence

• Developers are

expected to deliver

more








Actor Model to the Rescue!








What is the actor model?








Everything is an actor.








Actors work by passing each other

messages








This is an actor








These are messages






















3 Core Actor Abilities

1. Send messages2. Create other actors3. Change behavior








Benefit 1: actors make it easy

to write asynchronous

applications








Benefit 2: actor state is always

thread-safe and never needs

locks!








Actor Thread Safety

• Actor state is never shared directly with

any other object

• Actors share data via message-passing

• All messages are immutable

• Actors process one message at a time








Process messages one at a time








Benefit 3: actors are resilient

to failures








Actors Exist as Hierarchies








Parents Supervise Children








When actors fail, parents can

restart them into their original

state








Benefit 4: Actors can be easily

distributed across the network








Actors have globally unique addresses








But you don’t need to know an

actor’s address.

(We use “Actor References” to

communicate with actors)








ActorRefs have location transparency








Location of Actor in Cluster

Doesn't Matter








Benefit 5: actors reduce the

size of your code footprint








Traditional OOP: write code

that manages 1000 entities








With actor model: write actor

that manages 1 entity, run

1000 of them in parallel








New Ways of Looking at

Problems








What does this make possible

for you?








THANK YOU!

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @aaronontheweb

@AkkaDotNet







http://petabridge.com/datastax


http://LearnAkka.net







Documents

Akka.NET: The Future of Distributed Programming inqconrio.com/.../the_future_of_distributed_programming_in...2015.pdfActor Model : The Future of Distributed Programming. ... STREAM