Architecture and protocols
Architecture and protocols are the skeleton and logic of the Gamble Hub, the foundation on which the entire ecosystem is built.
If an ecosystem is an organism, then architecture is its structure, and protocols are a nervous system that provides synchronicity and meaningful movement.
Instead of the classic pyramid, where the growth goes from the base up, the Gamble Hub is built as a reverse pyramid: each peak becomes the source of its foundation.
An operator, studio or partner is not a "chain link," but the center of its own network, generating markets, connections and teams. The more active the peak, the wider its foundation, and the more stable the entire system.
1. Decentralization without chaos. Management is distributed, but all nodes are connected by uniform protocols of data, roles and rights.
2. Parameter inheritance. Any change in the upper layer (for example, RTP, limit or access) can be applied cascading down the chain with the possibility of local exceptions.
3. Scalability in breadth and depth. The network is growing not only vertically, but also laterally - creating new chains, partnerships, regional branches and product areas.
4. Transparent streams. All actions, events and transactions go through a single observability protocol - from the API level to the interface.
5. Self-organization. New elements (operators, studios, branches) are built into the architecture without external configuration: protocols automatically set links and metrics.
Gamble Hub protocols are a language of interaction between all levels of the system.
They determine who sees what, what actions are available, how reports are generated, and who is responsible for changes.
Each protocol describes not only the data structure, but also the logic of trust: signatures, audits, access rights and versions are fixed at the API level.
- Data protocol - responsible for the integrity and consistency between all services.
- Role protocol - Defines access levels, delegation, and inheritance.
- Transaction Protocol - Controls payment routes, limits, and security.
- Signal Protocol - Manages analytics flows and events within the network.
- Synchronization protocol - connects parallel circuits and allows them to exchange experience and benchmarks.
This is how a single control geometry is formed - transparent, predictable and scalable.
Unlike platforms where the structure is "hardwired," Gamble Hub creates a viable architecture that can adapt to the context of the participant.
It does not break when growing - it grows with him.
Each element of the network knows its place, its function and boundaries of responsibility, but remains part of the overall system.
Thanks to this, the architecture turns not into a scheme, but into a synchronous movement mechanism, where code, data and business speak the same language.
Architecture and protocols are not just a technical section.
It is a philosophy of interconnectedness, discipline and evolution.
Gamble Hub builds a system where growth starts at the top and sustainability is born out of a clear structure.
This model does not repeat the world - it creates a new order.
Key Topics
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Reverse Pyramid Model
A detailed guide to the use of the "reverse pyramid" in system architecture and network protocols: from prioritization of the critical path and minimal contracts to circuit versioning, progressive degradation, QoS, observability and antipatterns. With examples (REST/gRPC/Events) and a checklist for production.
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Event-Driven kernel
Event-Driven Core (EDC) Design Practice Guide: Event Types and Schemas, Delivery Semantics (at-least/exactly-once), Idempotency, Partitioning and Order, Outbox/CDC, Sagas and CQRS, Versioning, Safety, and Observability. With ready-made templates and checklists for production.
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CQRS and read/write separation
CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation) Practice Guide: When to Apply, How to Design Write and Read Models, Consistency (eventual vs. strong), Projections and Replications, outbox/CDC, Sagas and Transactional Boundaries, Storage Selection, Observability, Security, Testing, and Migrations. With templates for payments, KYC and balances.
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Event Sourcing: basics
A step-by-step introduction to Event Sourcing: key concepts (aggregate, event, snapshot, version), event design and circuit evolution, optimistic concurrency, state and projection reconstruction, testing, security (PII/GDPR), performance and antipatterns. With practical examples (payments, orders, balances) and a checklist for production.
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Exactly-once semantics
Engineering Guide to Exactly-Once Semantics (EOS): Delivery and Processing Differences, end-to-end vs. hop-by-hop, Architectural Patterns (Transactional Log + Sink, Outbox, Idempotent Shiki), Kafka EOS Engine, Flink/stream-processors, Deduplication and Versioning, Failure Testing, cost and trade-offs. With a production checklist and anti-patterns.
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Idempotence and keys
Idempotency How to Guide: Key Types (operation/event/business), Scope and TTL, Deduplication Stores, Optimistic Versions, upsert/merge-syncs, HTTP Idempotency-Key, gRPC/Streaming, Queues and Brokers. With table templates, pseudocode of transactions, antipatterns, failure tests and a checklist for production.
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API versioning strategies
Complete guide to versioning API for REST/gRPC/GraphQL/Event-driven: when to release major, how to live on additive changes, where to keep the version (URI, media types, headers, protobuf packages, event names), how to do negotiation, dual-run, sunset, gateway routing, and compatibility tests. With checklists, anti-patterns and ready-made templates.
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Schema registry and data evolution
A practical guide to building and operating a schema registry: schema types (JSON Schema/Avro/Protobuf/GraphQL SDL), compatibility modes (BACKWARD/FORWARD/FULL), version and migration management, additive evolution rules, validation in CI/CD, event cataloging and API, roll-out/rollback strategies, security and auditing. With examples, templates and checklists.
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Backward compatibility
Backward compatibility: additive-first principles, tolerant reader, minimum warranty contract, schema evolution (JSON Schema/Protobuf/Avro/GraphQL), versioning rules, safe/dangerous changes, deprecate and dual-run strategies, testing in CI/CD and observability. With examples for REST/gRPC/Events and checklists.
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Forward compatibility
Forward compatibility guide: principles of tolerant writer/reader, capability negotiation, default degradation, error and version contracts, compatibility modes in schema registers (FORWARD/FULL), patterns for REST/gRPC/GraphQL/Event-driven, testing and metrics. With checklists, examples and anti-patterns.
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Streaming
A practical guide to streaming data: event vs processing, windows and watermarks, order and lagging data, operator status, transactionality and idempotency, sources/receivers, scaling and backpressure, testing and restarts, security and cost. With templates, anti-patterns and checklists for production.
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Batch vs Stream: When What
Practical comparison of batch and stream processing: selection signals, SLO/SLA, data freshness and cost, typical architectures (Lambda/Kappa/Hybrid), windows and retro corrections, storage and formats, reliability and idempotency, testing and observability. With checklists, anti-patterns and reference patterns for analytics, product features and integrations.
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Global Node Distribution
A comprehensive guide to global host distribution, from network topology and routing to data consistency, fault tolerance, security, and observability. Practical patterns, metrics, type errors and comparison of approaches (CDN, edge, federations, p2p).
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Tenant isolation and limits
A complete guide to tenant isolation and limit management in multi-tenant systems: models and isolation levels (data/computing/network/operations), RLS and tenant key encryption, RBAC/ABAC, per-tenant quotas and rate-limits, noisy neighbor protection, observability and billing, DR/cascade-free incidents, checklists, and typographical errors.
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Rate limits and quotas
Practical guide to limiting and quotas: models (Token/Leaky Bucket, GCRA, windows), distributed limiters, limits on plans and tenants, caps for competition, VIP prioritization, protection against "noisy neighbor," idempotency and retray, response header standards, observability, billing and checklists before sale.
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Circuit Breaker and Degradation
Practical guide to implementing Circuit Breaker and managed degradation: switch states and algorithms, timeouts and retrays with jitter, idempotency keys, bulkhead isolation, fallback scripts (read-only, cache, gray responses), traffic prioritization, observability and testing (chaos, game days), checklists and typical errors.
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Sagas and distributed transactions
A practical guide to sagas and distributed transactions: consistency models (eventual/compensating/TCC), orchestration vs choreography, step and compensation design, idempotency and outbox, deduplication, timeouts and retrays, observability and testing, type errors, and production checklists.
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CAP and engineering trade-offs
A pragmatic explanation of the CAP theorem and accompanying trade-offs: what is network partitioning, how CP differs from AP, why "CA" is a myth in failures, how PACELC (latency vs. consistency) helps, what consistency models exist, how to make architectural decisions for multi-region, microservices and queues. Checklists, type errors and quick recipes.
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Consistency models
Pragmatic guide to consistency models: linearizable, sequential, serializable, snapshot isolation, per-session guarantees (read-your-writes, monotonic, causal), bounded staleness and eventual, as well as their impact on latency, availability and cost. We analyze quorums, clocks (Lamport/vector), CRDT, typical anomalies (write skew, phantom), selection checklist and quick recipes for multi-region and multi-tenant systems.
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Materialized Views
A practical guide to materialized views (MVs): what it is and how it differs from caches, how to design incremental updating (CDC/streaming), REFRESH schedules, indexes and partitioning, consistency and freshness, multi-region and multi-tenant, observability, tests, type errors, and production checklists.
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Read Models and Projections
A practical guide to Read Models and projections in CQRS: when they are needed, how to design denormalized models for specific requests, how to build a stream of updates (CDC/events), ensure idempotence and order, manage freshness, multi-tenancy and multi-region. Examples of schemes, upsert patterns, observability, redrive/recalculation playbooks and pre-sale checklist.
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Content catalog engine
Practical architecture of the content catalog engine for iGaming: domain model (Game/Provider/Collection/Placement), ingest and normalization of metadata, localization and multimedia, filters and search, ranking signals (RTP/volatility/popularity/marketing), personalization, compliance/geo-blocks, multi-tenant and multi-region, API (REST/GraphQL), caching/projections, SLO/observability, playbooks, and checklist.
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Per currency directories
Architectural guide to "per currency catalogs" for iGaming/SaaS: how to normalize price points, betting limits, jackpots and promos by currency; where to get courses (FX), how to cache and round, how to take into account commissions/spreads, how to resolve provider restrictions (RGS/PSP) and multi-tenant/multi-region rules. Projections, idempotency patterns, SLO "freshness" of courses, compliance and checklists.
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Limit hierarchy
Engineering model of the limit hierarchy for iGaming/SaaS: types (hard/soft, quotas/rate limits, monetary/time/quantitative), dimensions (tenant/region/currency/channel/game/player/session/device), priority order and merge, application points (gateway/domain/provider), idempotency and audit, observability and SLL O, playbooks and pre-sale checklist.
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Feature Flags and feature release
A practical guide to Feature Flags and release strategies: flag types (release, ops, kill-switch, experiment, permission), targeting and segmentation, progressive rollout, canary and dark releases, TTL/" debt "policies, consistency and multiservice dependencies, audit trail, observability and SLO, bagfix playbooks. Examples of schemes, YAML configs, SDK/Edge contracts, pre-sale checklist.
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Semantic versioning
Practical SemVer standard for the platform: what to count as breaking/minor/patch, how to version REST/gRPC/GraphQL/events/database schemas, provider adapters and client SDKs. Depriction policy, compatibility, negotiation, pre-release/metadata, changelog, release automation (Conventional Commits, CI/CD), checklists and anti-patterns.
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Webhook Delivery Guarantees
Engineering model of reliable delivery of webhooks: levels of guarantees (best-effort, at-least-once, effectively-exactly-once), key order, idempotency, signature and anti-replay, retrays with backoff + jitter, DLQ and redrive, quotas and fair-queue per tenant, observability and SLO, schema versioning, and incident playbooks. Example headings, useful formats, and reference policies.
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Connect OAuth2/OpenID in the kernel
OAuth 2 reference architecture. 1/OpenID Connect (OIDC) for platform core: threads (Auth Code + PKCE, Device, Client Credentials), PAR/JAR/JARM, DPoP/mTLS, tokens (AT/RT/ID), exchange tokens (RFC 8693), RAR/Consent, session & logout, multi-tenancy and regions, PDP integration (RBAC/ABAC), front and back protection, key rotation (JWKS), observability, playbooks, and production readiness checklist.
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Key management and rotation
Platform standard for cryptographic key management: classification (KMS/HSM, root/role/session), life cycle and rotation (scheduled/forced/rolling, dual-key), identification ('kid'), regionality and multi-tenant, JWKS and signature policies, envelope encryption and KD- F, secrets for integrations, audit and compliance, observability, incident playbooks and production readiness checklist. YAML/JSON examples and practical templates.
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At Rest encryption
A practical guide to encrypting data "at rest" in products and infrastructure: goals and boundaries of protection, threat model, choice of algorithms and modes, key hierarchy, KMS/HSM, rotation, multi-lease, performance, testing, audit and operation. Suitable for platform teams, security architect and developers.
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Auditing and immutable logs
A practical guide to building audits and unchangeable logs: threat model, event taxonomy, schemas and correlation, time requirements, delivery channels, retention and retention policies, cryptographic invariability (append-only, hash chains, signatures, time stamps), multi-lease, privacy, exploitation, testing and checklists. Suitable for platform and product teams, SecOps/Compliance and architects.
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Observability: logs, metrics, traces
Practical guide to building observability: taxonomy of signals (logs, metrics, traces, profiling), single context (trace_id), schemes and standards (JSON, OpenTelemetry), collection/storage/search architecture, SLI/SLO and error budget, alert by symptoms, selection of aggregates and sampling, multi-rent, privacy and security, cost and retention, testing, checklists and runbook 'and.
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Distributed Traces
Distributed Trace How-To: Trace/span, W3C Trace Context and Baggage, Sampling (head/tail), span links for asynchronous, correlation with metrics and logs (exemplars), brokers and batches, retrays and idempotency, multi-lease and privacy, storage and cost, trace platform SLO, testing, checklists and runbook 'and. Based on OpenTelemetry standards and compatible stacks.
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Progressive release and staging
A practical guide to progressive delivery and management of staging environments: types of environments, preview stands, phicheflags, canary and phased rollouts, SLO gates, database migrations, rollbacks and anti-patterns. Suitable for monoliths and microservices, on-prem and cloud.
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Zero-Downtime deployments
Complete guide to downtime: principles, patterns (rolling, blue-green, canary), routing and drainage of connections, readiness/liveness samples, DB migrations (expand-migrate-contract), caches and sessions, queues and outbox, rollbacks, test plans and anti-patterns. Suitable for monoliths and microservices, on-prem and cloud.
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Graceful degradation
Graceful degradation guide for distributed systems and products: degradation principles and levels (client, edge, service, data), degradation "ladders" and triggers, templates (brownout, partial response, read-only, stale-while-revalidate, admission control, load shedding), SLO/erroneous budget policies, observability and risk management. Case studies for Nginx/Envoy/Istio, Kubernetes, Kafka and UI/mobile clients, checklist and anti-patterns.
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Task Queues and Balancing
A practical guide to building task queuing systems: push/pull models, routing and load balancing (round-robin, fair share, priorities, WFQ/WRR), delivery semantics (at-least/at-most/effectively exactly-once), retrai and DLQ, visibility/timeouts, idempotence and dedup, planning and SLA classes, auto-scaling of workers, sharding and multi-tenancy, observability and checklists. Examples for RabbitMQ/AMQP, SQS, Kafka/NATS JetStream, Celery/Sidekiq/Resque, Redis queues.
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Exactly-once vs At-least-once
Practical comparison of message/task delivery semantics: failure patterns where "real exactly-once" is possible and where it is a marketing myth; how to build effectively exactly-once over at-least-once with idempotency, transactions, and deduplication. Patterns (Outbox/Inbox, Upsert, idempotent keys, SAGA), examples for Kafka/NATS/Rabbit/SQS and DB (PostgreSQL/Redis), anti-patterns, metrics, test playbooks and selection checklist.
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Event deduplication
Distributed deduplication design guide: where and how to remove duplicates (edge, broker, service, storage), key selection (natural/composite/fingerprint), time windows and order (watermarks, out-of-order), data structures (SET/TTL, LRU, Bloom/Cuckoo, Count-Min), transactional patterns (Inbox/Outbox, UPSERT, sequence/versioning), log compression, reprocessing and backfill, metrics and exploitation. Examples for Redis/SQL/Kafka/NATS/ClickHouse/Flink/Kafka Streams, checklist and anti-patterns.
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Message order guarantees
Practical guide to ensuring order in brokers and queues: types of guarantees (per-partition, per-key, global, causal), where order is lost (retrai, parallelism, multiconsuming), how to save it (keys/parties, sequence/versioning, transactions, sticky-routing), how to "fix" out-of-order in stream processing (buffers, windows, watermarks) and what to do with "poisonous" messages. Разбор Kafka, RabbitMQ, NATS/JetStream, SQS FIFO, Pub/Sub; checklists, anti-patterns, and sample configurations.
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Distributed locks
A practical guide to distributed locks: when they are really needed, what models (lease, fencing, quorum) are, how to build locks on etcd/ZooKeeper/Consul/PostgreSQL/Redis, why "Redlock" is controversial, and how to avoid split-brain. Consider CP vs AP, TTL/renewal, owner discovery, priorities and fairness, deedlocks and priority inversion, observability and test playbooks. Code examples and checklists.
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Choice of leader
A practical guide to choosing a leader in distributed systems: when you need it, what models exist (lease, epoch, quorum), Raft/Paxos/Bully comparison/ZAB Gallery, etcd/ZooKeeper/Consul/Kubernetes implementation, how to avoid split-brain, how to set up TTL/heartbeat/backoff, what to write (epochs, fencing-token), how to test files (GC pauses, network partitions) and what metrics/alerts to hold. Implementation checklist, anti-patterns and code snippets.
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Consensus algorithms
System consensus guide: why it is needed and how it differs from quorum reads/records; time and failure models (Crash vs Byzantine), safety/survivability properties, quorum and re-configuration, state machine and replication log. Разбор Raft, Paxos/EPaxos, ZAB, Viewstamped Replication, PBFT/Tendermint/HotStuff; comparison by latency, throughput, and operational complexity. Read patterns (lease/read-index), snapshots, reconfiguration, geo-distribution and anti-patters. With selection checklist and examples.
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GRPC vs REST в iGaming
Engineering comparison of gRPC and REST for iGaming platforms: when to choose binary gRPC (low latency, streaming, strict contracts), and when REST (browser compatibility, partner integrations, caches/CDN). We analyze real-time betting schemes, quotes, anti-fraud, payments and KYC, the impact of the protocol on SLO/SLA, idempotency and audit, API gateways and service mesh, security and versioning, observability and test playbooks. Ready-made patterns, anti-patterns and selection checklist.
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Pagination and cursors
A practical guide to pagination design in high-load systems: comparison of offset and cursor approaches, opaque token design, sample consistency, indexing, cross-shard navigation, security, and UX. Examples for REST, GraphQL and gRPC, test recommendations, metrics and SLOs.
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Indexing and Query Optimization
Complete guide to index design and query optimization in relational and non-relational databases: structure selection (B-Tree, Hash, GIN/GiST, BRIN, Bitmap), composite and partial indexes, partitioning and sharding, statistics and cardinality, execution plans, join strategies, query rewriting, butching, caching and SLO. Examples for PostgreSQL/MySQL, ClickHouse, MongoDB, Elasticsearch/Opensearch. Anti-patterns, implementation checklist, and observability.
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Time zones and sensitivity
A practical guide to working with time in distributed systems: UTC vs local time, IANA timezones, DST, "double" and missed minutes, leap-seconds/world, schedulers, events and logs, data models, API contracts, testing and observability. Patterns, anti-patterns and checklists for architects and developers.
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Contract testing
Distributed Systems Contract Testing Guide: Contract Types (HTTP/gRPC/GraphQL/Kafka), Consumer-Driven Model, Schema Version and Evolution, Negative and Invariant Checks, Stable Generation, Pact/contract-broker/Schema Registry, CI Embedding/CD, compatibility matrix, and anti-patterns. Sample schemes, pseudocode and checklists.
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Stability testing
A Practical Guide to Testing the Robustness of Distributed Systems: Goals and Metrics, the "Steady State" Hypothesis, Fault Injection (Network/CPU/Memory/Disk), Dependency Degradation, Retrai/Timeouts/Breakers/Backprescher/Shading, Isolation (bulkheads), Data Quorums, Anti-Fragility, Game Day, and Automation in CI/CD. Patterns, anti-patterns, checklists, and pseudocode.
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Energy efficient architecture
A practical guide to green architecture: metrics (PUE/CUE/joules per request), energy and carbon models, carbon-aware planning, hardware and algorithm selection, code and data efficiency, network and storage patterns, ML optimization, telemetry and gates in CI/CD. Patterns/anti-patterns, checklists, and pseudocode.
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Reference implementation
A practical guide to creating and operating reference implementations (Reference Implementations, RI): goals and boundaries, repository architecture, protocol and schema conventions, conformance tests and golden files, CI/CD, sample clients and SDKs, production "Jordan-minimum" settings (security, observation, perf baselines), version policy and compatibility matrix, anti-patterns and architect checklist.
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Threat Modeling and Risk Control
Practical Guide to Threat Modeling and Risk Management: Asset and Trust Inventory, DFD/Data Outlines, STRIDE/LINDDUN/PASTA Frameworks, Risk Scales (DREAD/CVSS), Risk Register, Control Selection and Design (prevent/detect/respond), Safety by Principle (Least Privilege, Zero Trust, KMS/secrets, PoLP), supply chain (SBOM/SLSA/IaC policies), privacy, gates in SDLC and maturity metrics. Templates, checklists, sample charts and policies as code.
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Retention and retention policies
Practical guide to data retention: classification and retention cards, legal requirements (GDPR/CCPA, etc.), ILM processes (ingest → hot/warm/cold → archive → deletion), TTL/policies as code, key shredding (crypto-erasure), backups vs archives vs WORM, stream retention (Kafka), database and file storage, eDiscovery/Legal Hold, compliance monitoring and gates in CI/CD. Checklists, anti-patterns and YAML/Rego/SQL working examples.
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Multi-cloud topology
A practical guide to designing a multi-cloud architecture: target drivers (SLO, compliance, sovereignty, cost), topological patterns (Active/Active, Active/Passive, DR-Only, Poly-Service), network layer (GSLB/Anycast, peering, egress control), data and consistency (CDC, CRDT, bidirectional replication), identity and secrets, service meshes and multiclusters, observability, SDLC/IaC/policies as code, FinOps/carbon, fake testing and games. Checklists, anti-patterns and YAML/pseudocode examples.