Is Your Architecture a Geocentric Mess? Slack's Journey to Simplicity

Are you wrestling with increasingly complex software architecture that feels like adding "epicycles" just to make it work? In this talk, Ian Hoffman, a Staff Engineer at Slack, takes you behind the scenes of Slack's architectural evolution and the critical decision to fundamentally rethink their core model. Drawing parallels with the historical shift from a geocentric to a heliocentric understanding of the solar system, Ian reveals how Slack navigated the limitations of their initial "Workspace Model" and the complexities introduced by the "Enterprise Grid." He then unveils their latest "Unified Grid" architecture, driven by the core question: why should users view data from only one workspace at a time? 🔗 Transcript available on InfoQ: https://bit.ly/4d7CX0f #SoftwareArchitecture #SystemDesign #SlackEngineering ➡️ Ready to simplify your complex systems? Like, comment, and subscribe for more insights into large-scale software engineering! 💬 What "epicycles" are slowing down YOUR team's productivity? Share your biggest architectural or legacy system challenges in the comments below! 👇