Building future-proof apps with the modular monolith
In the world of software development, finding the right balance between monolithic and microservices architectures is crucial to creating maintainable and scalable applications. However, the journey to microservices is not without its challenges, and teams often find themselves grappling with the repercussions of early adoption.
Introducing the modular monolith; all the benefits of a monolith such as reduced complexity, ease of deployment, easier debugging, and so on - but ready to be easily decomposed into services as required.
Join us as we explore the principles, patterns, and practices that empower developers to build robust, flexible, and extensible applications without prematurely involving the complexities of microservices and distributed systems.
In this workshop, we will use the fictional case study of a thriving business aspiring to expand, exploring key topics, utilising .NET 8 and .NET Aspire..
We'll cover aspects of event-driven architecture, messaging, and various supporting design patterns.
PREREQUISITES: Attendees should be familiar with ASP.NET and C#. Other required concepts will be covered.
NOTE: This is NOT a hands-on workshop. You're welcome to bring laptops and try some of the labs provided or take notes, but it is not required.
If attendees wish to code along, the following will need to be installed on your machine (assistance with setup will be very limited):
- Laptop (Windows PC or macOS)
- Visual Studio 2022 or JetBrains Rider
- VS Code
- Azure Data Studio
- .NET 8 or higher
- Docker Desktop
- Azurite
- .NET Aspire Workload installed
Completed code and documentation will be available at the end of the workshop.

Layla is a Microsoft MVP, Progress Champion, 3 times GitHub Star, and former director on the board at the .NET Foundation.
She is the co-founder of November North, a micro-game studio, developing and producing a first-person stealth game titled "The Third Tourist" - go and wishlist it on Steam!
Layla lives in the UK with her husband Jim and dogs, Cookie and Summer.