Chapter 1: What is the MuleSoft Platform? In this chapter we will examine MuleSoft and the Anypoint Platform. We’ll identify the components and how they relate to each other. And we will describe the platform’s role in an organization and high level capabilities it provides as an integration Platform as a Service. We’ll also review a history of traditional integration approaches and how MuleSoft solves the need for a modern integration approach.

Chapter 2: Platform foundation components and the underlying architecture, The Anypoint platform is made up of many different services, components, and capabilities. This chapter examines at a high level the major components of the platform, why they are important to integration, if and how they interact. Essentially, this chapter begins to explore the properties and characteristics of the platform including Exchange, Runtime Manager, API Manager, Monitoring. This chapter will also point to later chapters where a more detailed exploration of certain services (such as CloudHub 2.0) and design an architecture to make the best use of them.

Chapter 3: Leveraging Catalyst and the Mulesoft KnowledgeHub, MuleSoft provides customers and partners access to a framework and methodology for delivery enterprise integration. This chapter will describe the methodology and how it combines business outcomes with technology and organization enablement using a library of artifacts, templates, and examples gathered from the field across numerous MuleSoft projects and deployments.

Chapter 4: Introduction to Application Networks, The structure produced through API-led connectivity is a network of nodes and applications. In this chapter we will discuss the logical concept of the application network, the physical manifestation, the benefits and the challenges of the network. This chapter will show how designing an application network not only enables the creation of a composable enterprise but also how it impacts the different platform deployment approaches.

Chapter 5: Speeding with Accelerators, MuleSoft has developed and made available 8 accelerators accessible through Anypoint Exchange. In this chapter, the reader will learn how these accelerators can save time across the various stages of the API lifecycle. The reader will gain a perspective on how the building blocks in each accelerator can be used and customized and what different assets, patterns, mappings, and endpoints have been included. Following a use case of a retail music store, the reader will walk through setting up and customizing the Retail Accelerator.

Chapter 6: Aligning desired business outcomes to functional requirements, A critical step in getting the most out of the MuleSoft platform is to understand the desired business outcomes and turn those outcomes into functional requirements. This chapter looks at how functional requirements line up with the platform capabilities. The reader will look at how these functional requirements can influence architecture decisions and design patterns such as data models, granularity, concurrency, and HTTP methods. The chapter will include examples of using bounded context data models vs. enterprise data models, using asynchronous APIs with polling and callbacks.

Chapter 7: Microservices, Application Networks, and API led design, The MuleSoft Platform is very flexible and is able to accommodate multiple approaches to architecture design. This chapter will address popular architecture design approaches and how these will look when deployed to (or managed by) the Anypoint Platform. The chapter will also compare and contrast the architecture approaches, examine pros and cons of each, and suggest best practices for designing solutions.

Chapter 8: Non-Functional Requirements influence in shaping the Architecture, Every architect must manage a set of non-functional requirements. These non-functional requirements describe the technical constraints of the solution and document how the solution should behave. What kind of performance is expected? What about availability? What happens when disaster strikes? Who can access and when? Is security critical or not? What kind of encryption is needed? The reader will see in this chapter how the answers to these questions influence the architecture design and how the design should use MuleSoft Platform.

Chapter 9: Hassle-free deployment with Anypoint iPaaS (CloudHub), In this chapter the reader will learn approaches to deployment using MuleSoft CloudHub. This chapter will look at what are the differences and how are the two cloud iPaaS environments similar. This chapter will also look at the different ways to deploy your solution to the Anypoint CloudHub offerings and the pros and cons of each of these methods. It will also examine licensing implications of your design and architecture approach.

Chapter 10: Hassle-free deployment with Anypoint iPaaS (CloudHub 2.0), In this chapter the reader will learn approaches to deployment using MuleSoft CloudHub 2.0. This chapter will look at what are the differences and how are the two cloud iPaaS environments similar. This chapter will also look at the different ways to deploy your solution to the Anypoint CloudHub 2.0 offerings and the pros and cons of each of these methods. It will also examine licensing implications of your design and architecture approach.

Chapter 11: Containerizing the Runtime Plane with Runtime Fabric, This chapter will introduce the Anypoint Runtime Fabric (RTF). The chapter will look at the basic concepts of containerization using some of the industry standards such as EKS and AKS. It will then look at how RTF aligns with these container concepts and platforms. The chapter will also examine the different approaches MuleSoft supports with RTF, including self-managed containers and Anypoint managed containers.

Chapter 12: Deploying to your own Data Center, As a hybrid integration platform as a service, MuleSoft can run anywhere including inside a businesses data center on the businesses own iron. This chapter takes a look at how to set up the server to run the MuleSoft engine and how to connect it to the control panel so it can be managed. The chapter will also take a brief look at Private Cloud Edition (PCE) and how it allows an organization to run both the control plane as well as the runtime plane from their own hardware and servers from within their own development center.

Chapter 13: Government Cloud and EU Control Plane: Special considerations, This chapter will show the reader some important differences when working with the Government Cloud as well as the EU Control Plane. The chapter will give a brief introduction to FEDRAMp compliance. The reader will learn the government cloud is deployed in a special AWS region which is FEDRamp compliment.

Chapter 14: Functional Monitoring, Alerts, and Operation Monitors: Advanced monitoring techniques, This chapter will show the reader what are the capabilities provided by Anypoint Monitoring and what are the different alerts that can be configured on APIs and Servers. The reader will learn about Functional Monitoring and some of the advanced features of Anypoint Monitoring.

Chapter 15: Controlling API Sprawl in one Platform with Universal API Management, This chapter will show the reader how to manage MuleSoft APIs and Non MuleSoft APIs lifecycle using API Manager. The reader will learn Mule Gateway, Flex Gateway, Service Mesh, API Proxies, Analytics, Alerts etc.

Chapter 16: Addressing non-functional requirements from thought to operate, This chapter will show the reader about implementing Non-Functional requirements like HA, Fault Tolerance, Resilience and allocating and optimizing the vCores to enhance the application performance.

Chapter 17: Prepare for exam success, This chapter will show the reader how to prepare for the MuleSoft Certified Platform Architecture Exam - Level 1 and eligibility criteria for the exam. It will tell what are the important topics for the MCPA exam and recommendations and guidelines for the exam.

Chapter 18: Tackling Tricky Topics, The MuleSoft Exams are not meant to be tricky. They have been designed and developed to set the bar at just the right level to ensure the exam takers know the material. Occasionally some of the topics covered in the Platform Architecture exam are a bit more difficult and can seem tricky. This chapter will look at the topics that may be more difficult.