How Large Systems Rethink Communication

Source: Dev.to

Introduction

Have you ever noticed how systems that worked perfectly fine suddenly start behaving differently as they grow? It’s not because the early decisions were wrong — it’s just that scale introduces new challenges, and some assumptions that felt safe initially start getting stretched. One of the first things teams revisit in this process is how different parts of the system communicate.

Synchronous APIs

Most systems start with synchronous APIs. And why not? They’re easy to reason about, simple to debug, and make the flow of requests and responses clear. One service calls another, gets an answer, and moves on. For a long time, this works beautifully. Latency is predictable, dependencies are few, feedback is immediate, and issues are easy to spot. Teams can move fast, and the system behaves exactly as expected.

Challenges at Scale

But then the system grows. Suddenly, traffic patterns are uneven, some requests spike, and others take longer than anticipated. New consumers join the system, old ones evolve, and processing capacity doesn’t always keep up with the incoming load. Coordinating when work happens across services becomes harder, and timeouts, retries, and monitoring start appearing everywhere. This isn’t a failure. The system is still doing what it was designed to do; it’s just working under new conditions.

At this stage, the question subtly changes. Instead of asking, “Can this service respond right now?” teams start asking, “Can we make sure this work happens reliably, even if it takes time?” That’s where messaging often enters the picture. Messaging allows one part of the system to record intent and another to act on it when it can. Temporary backlogs are expected, and slower components don’t immediately block faster ones.

Messaging Complements APIs

Messaging doesn’t replace APIs — it complements them. Most modern systems end up using both. APIs remain for interactions that need immediacy, while messaging handles workloads that can tolerate flexible timing.

Enterprise Messaging vs. Kafka

Enterprise messaging systems like TIBCO EMS have been around for a long time to address these needs. EMS works very well in environments where delivery guarantees matter, consumers are stable, message flows are predictable, and processing happens close to event creation. Many large organisations still rely on EMS for core integrations.

As systems become more distributed and dynamic, additional needs arise — particularly around retaining data longer and allowing multiple consumers to act independently. This is where Kafka comes in. By treating events as a durable, ordered log, Kafka allows consumers to replay data when needed, multiple teams to read the same events independently, and processing to happen without tight coordination. Recovery becomes more predictable, and the system can handle growing complexity without changing the API‑based interactions that already work. Kafka isn’t replacing earlier messaging systems — it’s expanding the architectural toolbox for modern needs, where history matters as much as delivery.

Maturity of Communication Choices

As systems mature, communication choices become more deliberate. Some interactions need agreement on time, some on state, and some on both. There’s no single right way to design it. The best architectures recognise which guarantees each part of the system actually needs and pick the right pattern accordingly.

Conclusion

When systems rethink communication, it’s not because something went wrong. It’s because teams now understand the trade‑offs better. Synchronous APIs feel natural early on, messaging helps reduce tight coordination later, and durable event streams make complex recovery and replay possible. Large systems evolve because experience teaches the teams what works under different constraints. That evolution is a sign of maturity — not technical debt.