Building software that scales isn’t just about handling more traffic—it’s about creating systems that can evolve with your business without requiring a complete rewrite every few years.
Start with the Problem, Not the Solution
One of the most common mistakes I see is teams reaching for complex distributed architectures before they actually need them. Yes, microservices can help you scale. But they also introduce significant operational complexity that you’ll need to manage.
The question isn’t “how do we build this to handle 10 million users?” when you have 1,000. The question is “how do we build this so it’s easy to change when we understand our needs better?”
The Three Pillars I’ve Come to Rely On
After 15+ years of building systems, I’ve found three principles that consistently matter:
1. Observability First
You can’t improve what you can’t measure. Before optimizing anything, make sure you can see what’s happening in your system. Good logging, metrics, and tracing will save you countless hours of debugging.
2. Boring Technology
New tools are exciting. Battle-tested tools are reliable. Unless there’s a compelling reason to use something cutting-edge, I default to technologies that have proven themselves over time. PostgreSQL, Redis, and a well-structured monolith can take you surprisingly far.
3. Team Autonomy
The best architecture is one that lets teams move independently. This might mean microservices, or it might mean a well-modularized monolith. The technical choice matters less than the organizational outcome.
Looking Ahead
I’m currently fascinated by how AI is changing the way we build software. Not just in what we build, but how we build it. The integration of LLMs into development workflows is still in its early days, but I see enormous potential for tools that augment developer capabilities rather than replace them.
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