Unified Grid: How We Re-Architected Slack for Our Largest Customers

Unified Grid: How We Re-Architected Slack for Our Largest Customers

摘要

All software is built atop a core set of assumptions. As new code is added and new use-cases emerge, software can become unmoored from those assumptions. When this happens, a fundamental tension arises between revisiting those foundational assumptions—which usually entails a lot of work—or trying to support new behavior atop the existing architecture. The latter approach is usually advised, to save time and reduce risk.

However, there are times when it’s worth revising the core architecture of a large software application. Recently at Slack we did just that, taking a step back to change how our backend and clients (the desktop and mobile applications) work on a foundational level.