Anypoint Platform Architecture: Integration Solutions

Summary
This course teaches experienced solution and technical architects or lead/senior developers how to
design integration solutions that meet functional and non-functional requirements using Anypoint
Platform™. It builds on prior experience developing and deploying Mule applications, and gives
concrete guidance on how to design integration solutions for the Mule runtime (both Mule 4 and Mule 3)
in the various deployment options supported by the Anypoint Platform. The course is case-study driven,
with the solution architecture and effect on the organization's overall architecture being documented as
the course progresses.

This course prepares students to take the MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect - Level 1 certification
exam and includes two exam attempts.

Duration
5 days (in-person or online)

Objectives
At the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Translate functional and non-functional requirements into well documented integration interfaces
and implementation designs.
• Select the best Mule components and patterns for integration solution designs.
• Select the deployment approach and configuration of Anypoint Platform with any of the available
deployment options (MuleSoft-hosted or customer-hosted control plane and runtime plane).
• Design Mule applications for the various deployment options of the Anypoint Platform runtime
plane.
• Apply standard development methods covering the full development lifecycle to ensure solution
quality.
• Design reusable assets, components, standards, frameworks, and processes to support and
facilitate API and integration projects.
• Design and be responsible for the technical quality, governance (ensuring compliance), and
operationalization of integration solutions.
• Advise technical teams on performance, scalability, reliability, monitoring, and other operational
concerns of integration solutions on Anypoint Platform.

Audience
Solution and technical architects or lead/senior developers that are focused on designing enterprise
integration solutions and have prior experience developing and deploying non-trivial Mule applications
Prerequisites
Experience developing and deploying Mule applications as demonstrated by one of the
following:

• Passing the MuleSoft Certified Developer – Level 1 (Mule 4) exam

• Passing the MuleSoft Certified Developer - Integration and API Associate (Mule 3) exam
• Completion of the Anypoint Platform Development: Fundamentals course

Additional development and architecture knowledge and experience including:

• Proficiency in any JVM-based programming language with ability to read procedural, object-
oriented, and (ideally) functional code
• Familiarity with threads, thread pools, locks, server/client sockets, JDBC data sources, and
connection pools on the JVM
• Proficiency with current software development tools like Git/GitHub, Maven, Jenkins, or similar
• Experience as an architect or lead/senior developer on at least one integration project using any
technology stack
• A full understanding of the fundamental ingredients of enterprise integration including interface
definitions and contracts; data encoding using XML or JSON; REST APIs or SOAP web services;
SQL or NoSQL database access; message-passing using JMS, AMQP or similar; network protocols
like TCP/IP, HTTP and HTTPS; single-resource transactions
• Familiarity with basic security concepts including certificates and encryption at rest and in transit

Setup requirements
• A computer with:
o At least 8-16 GB (16 highly recommended) available RAM, 2GHz CPU, and 10GB
available storage
o A minimum screen resolution of 1024x768
• Internet access to ports 80 and 3306 (with > 5Mbps download and > 2Mbps upload)
• The latest version of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge
• OpenJDK 8 (NOT 11 or a later version)
• Anypoint Studio 7 with embedded Mule 4.X runtime
• An Anypoint Platform account
• Advanced REST Client (or some other REST client application)
• (Optional) Archimate (or some other architecture diagramming tool)

Get a detailed setup document here.

Outline

PART 1: Architecting and designing integration solutions

Module 1: Introducing integration solution architectures
• Describe the objectives of enterprise integration solution
• Summarize how to architect for success with Anypoint Platform
• Describe how integration solutions using Anypoint Platform are documented
• Start using an architecture template for the course case study

Module 2: Identifying Anypoint Platform components and capabilities

• Identify and document the overall design intentions of Anypoint Platform
• Summarize Anypoint Platform capabilities and high-level components
• Identify and distinguish between Anypoint Platform infrastructure and deployment options
• Choose Anypoint Platform components to be used to meet the functional and non-functional
requirements of an integration use case

Module 3: Designing integration solutions using Mule applications

• Explain the typical uses of Mule components (including connectors, transformers, routers, and error
handlers) in Mule applications
• Describe the differences between Mule 4 and Mule 3 applications
• Choose appropriate Mule application components to design an integration use case
• Summarize how class loading isolation is implemented in Mule runtimes

Module 4: Choosing appropriate Mule 4 event processing models

• Distinguish between Mule 4 blocking, non-blocking, parallel, and reactive event processing options
• Identify the event processing models used in various Mule 4 scopes and components
• Describe Mule 4 streaming options and behaviors
• Describe the event processing options for JMS and VM connectors
• Select appropriate event processing for an integration use case
• Design batch, near real-time, and real-time data synchronization integration use cases

Module 5: Choosing appropriate message transformation and routing patterns

• Describe reusable ways to transform and process events
• Explain how to simplify and decouple complex data mappings using common data models
• Design transformations between data models
• Choose the best event transformation, data validation, and event routing patterns to an integration
use case
Module 6: Designing Mule application testing strategies
• Describe possible testing strategies for Mule applications
• Document a testing strategy for an integration use case
• Define the types of MUnit tests required for an integration use case and document the code
coverage
• Design integration and performance tests for Mule applications

PART 2: Operationalizing integration solutions

Module 7:Choosing and developing a deployment strategy
• Distinguish between various Anypoint Platform runtime service models
• Distinguish between various Anypoint Platform deployment models
• Select the best deployment and runtime service options for an integration use case

Module 8: Designing with appropriate state preservation and management options

• Decide the best way to store Mule application state in persistent or non-persistent storage
• Explain how to store Mule application state using Object Store v2
• Decide when to manage storage of Mule application state using persistent VM queues
• Decide when to use Mule application provided caches to store Mule application state
• Design an integration solution to avoid duplicate processing of previous records using Mule
connector watermarks
• Design the best storage and state management options for an integration use case

Module 9: Designing effective logging and monitoring

• Describe auditing and logging options for Mule applications
• Design logging strategies for Mule applications
• Choose logging policies for Mule application log files
• Describe integration options with third-party log management systems
• Specify Anypoint Platform monitoring, alerting, notification, visualization, and reporting options for
APIs and integration solutions
• Choose the best monitoring, alerting, and notification options for an integration use case

Module 10: Designing an efficient and automated software development lifecycle

• Design to manage property files for Mule applications across different environments
• Design to manage Anypoint Platform environments for Mule application deployments
• Describe how to implement continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) for an
organization
• Describe how to automate deployment and management with Anypoint Platform
PART 3: Designing strategies to meet non-functional requirements
Module 11: Designing transaction management in Mule applications
• Identify why and when transactions are supported in Mule applications
• Identify resources that participate in transactions in Mule applications
• Describe how to manage a transaction using a transaction manager or the Saga pattern
• Describe how to demarcate transaction boundaries in Mule applications
• Choose the correct transaction type based on the participating resources

Module 12: Designing for reliability goals

• Identify and distinguish between reliability patterns for Mule application and their deployments
• Design to effectively balance competing non-functional requirements
• Clarify and validate reliability goals for an integration use case
• Design Mule applications and their deployments to meet reliability goals
• Design to effectively balance reliability goals with other project goals and requirements

Module 13: Designing for high availability goals

• Identify various types of high availability (HA) goals for Mule applications
• Identify ways to achieve HA in CloudHub and on-premises deployments
• Identify HA aware connectors and their design tradeoffs
• Describe how clustering and load balancing work in CloudHub and on-premises deployments
• Design to effectively balance HA goals with other project goals and requirements

Module 14: Optimizing the performance of deployed Mule applications

• Clarify performance goals for Mule applications
• Identify the need for performance optimization and associated tradeoffs
• Describe ways to search for and locate performance bottlenecks
• Describe how to design, architect, design, and implement for performance
• Describe ways to measure performance
• Describe methods and best practices to performance tune Mule applications and Mule runtimes
• Design to effectively balance performance goals with reliability and HA goals

Module 15: Designing secure Mule applications and deployments

• Describe Anypoint Platform security concepts and options
• Explain how to secure APIs on Anypoint Platform
• Differentiate between MuleSoft and customer responsibilities related to Anypoint Platform security
• Evaluate security risks for Mule applications
• Describe how to secure Mule application properties and data in transit
Module 16: Designing secure network communications between Mule applications
• Describe Anypoint Platform network security options and architectures
• Identify MuleSoft-owned and customer-owned roles and responsibilities related to Anypoint
Platform network security
• Describe how to secure Mule applications using Java key stores
• Design TLS communication and other network security options for an integration use case
• Properly size an Anypoint VPC to support deployment of all expected Mule applications

Module 17: Putting it all together

• Review the essential steps for designing an integration solution using Anypoint Platform and Mule
applications
• Carry out all the steps to design an integration solution for an integration use case