19th annual [QCon London] conference, Day three on April 9th, 2025 at [Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre]. Key takeaways: dedicated leader owns vision but human experience is tense; CRDTs useful but models hard to set correctly; betraying trust between security and architecture betrays both.

• Keynote Address: Advanced Message Queuing Politics

  • [John O'Hara] presented, started with bank's message-oriented middleware story.
  • Middleware was arcane in 1990s, banks often wrote their own. By 2002, many had own middleware.
  • O'Hara said inter- and intra-business connections cause complexity and cost.
  • Today, there are 7 AMQP implementations with all clients communicating with servers.
  • AMQP 1.0 was released in 2011 and is still the standard. It aimed to solve business problems, commodize messaging, be open-source and provide a standard.
  • Well-known implementations emerged since AMQP's creation. DHS also standardized on it.
  • Today, AMQP is ISO-certified and processes 10 trillions messages per day.
  • Key learnings: people with dedicated leader own vision; hygiene with business case and resource security; thorough specifications with extensibility; products balancing users and vendors.

• Highlighted Presentations

  • How to Build a Database Without a Server by [Alex Seaton]

    • Introduced serverless database through multiple definitions.
    • Focused on ArcticDB with Python and C++ code examples for creating database and querying stock info.
    • Object storage has a tree structure with only top layer mutable. Performance issues with native and Python mapping.
    • Discussed CRDTs like G-Set, 2P-Set, LWW-Element-Set and OR-Set for global state management.
    • Key takeaways: object storage improving; distributed locking is subtle; building useful system with issues in clocks, sets and locks; CRDTs useful but subtle.

  • Security and Architecture: To Betray One Is To Destroy Both by [Shana Dacres-Lawrence]

    • Defined betrayal as breaking trust. For security and architecture, it's compromising foundation.
    • Relationship between security and architecture has evolved from silos to collaborative.
    • There are three types of betrayal: physical, emotional and trust.
    • Discussed five defense strategies: open communication, tools and technology, automation, hands-on validation and collaborative culture.
    • Key takeaways: consistency builds trust; adopt "shift-left" approach; be intentional; test scenarios but react; security guides architecture and vice versa.