Conversational Applications With Large Language Models Understanding the Sequence of User Inputs, Prompts, and Responses

Conversational Applications are emerging to be an integral part of our daily lives, from virtual assistants to chatbots and voice-based interfaces. Have you ever wondered what happens behind the scenes when you interact with these systems? In this article, we will delve into the technical aspects of how user inputs are processed, converted into prompts, sent to large language models (LLMs), and responses are generated and presented back to the user. We will explain the sequence of events in a simplified manner, making it easy for both technical and non-technical readers to understand.

User Input

It all begins with a user input, which can be a spoken command, text message, or even a button click. For example, let's say a user says, "Hey, what's the weather like today?"

Applying Kappa Architecture to Make Data Available Where It Matters

Introduction 

Banks are accelerating their modernization effort to rapidly develop and deliver top-notch digital experiences for their customers. To achieve the best possible customer experience, decisions need to be made at the edge where customers interact. It is critical to access associated data to make decisions. Traversing the bank’s back-end systems, such as mainframes, from the digital experience layer is not an option if the goal is to provide the customers the best digital experience. Therefore, for making decisions fast without much latency, associated data should be available closer to the customer experience layer.    

Thankfully, over the last few years, the data processing architecture has evolved from ETL-centric data processing to real-time or near real-time streaming data processing architecture. Such patterns as change data capture (CDC) and command query responsibility segregation (CQRS) have evolved with architecture styles like Lambda and Kappa. While both architecture styles have been extensively used to bring data to the edge and process, over a period of time data architects and designers have adopted Kappa architecture over Lambda architecture for real-time processing of data. Combining the architecture style with advancements in event streaming, Kappa architecture is gaining traction in consumer-centric industries. This has greatly helped them to improve customer experience, and, especially for large banks, it is helping them to remain competitive with FinTech, which has already aggressively adopted event-driven data streaming architecture to drive their digital (only) experience. 

Event Meshes and Multi-Cloud

Digital transformation is leading to the accelerated adoption of cloud-native applications. These applications typically use a microservices-style architecture that span across multiple zones to provide for scalability. Most cloud-native applications even span across multiple cloud providers in order to complete complex business processes such as banking, logistics, and telehealth. Such a complex business process requires orchestration among multiple microservices (sometimes in hundreds), multi zones, multi-cloud providers, and multiple data centers.

The event-driven architecture (EDA) style is central to orchestrated execution of business processes that are compartmentalized by business contexts and implemented through microservices. The EDA also plays a key role around data in the cloud-native space, which is bounded to microservices, and will need to be managed as different segments of transactions are processed across multiple microservices.

Designing High-Volume Systems Using Event-Driven Architectures

Prelude

Microservices style application architecture is taking root and rapidly growing in population that are possibly scattered in different parts of the enterprise ecosystem. Organizing and efficiently operating them on a multi-cloud environment organizing data around microservices, making the data as real-time as possible are emerging to be some of the key challenges.

Thanks to the latest development in Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) platforms such as Kafka and data management techniques such as Data Meshes and Data Fabrics, designing microservices-based applications is now much easier.

Solution Thinking Design

Context

You are modernizing a Core System and have defined a Target Business Architecture (BA) that will replace it. You are following the defined modernization roadmap and are in charge of the modernization of one of the Business Capabilities of the Target Business Architecture. Now, you need to understand how the current Core System is addressing the Business Capability, i.e., you have to map which legacy system is providing the business capabilities associated with this system in the BA. 

Usually, the core system will be a set of monoliths, applications, services, and transactions that are integrated and tightly coupled so that if you map all of them and its integrations, you will end up with a picture like this one:

Hybrid Multicloud Adoption

Prelude

  • This blog discusses the importance of hybrid multicloud to accelerate business transformation. 
  • The discussion assumes that the readers are well versed with cloud technology concepts as well as the business value and challenges related to modernizing applications using cloud technologies.
  • This blog focuses only on the concept of multicloud, which adds new dimensions of complexity and value as opposed to leveraging a single cloud provider.

Evolution of Hybrid Multicloud

The evolution of cloud computing started with the utility computing concept. It began from the concept of dedicated resources vs. shared resource platforms. Businesses have embraced cloud platforms including private, public, hybrid, and hybrid multicloud.

In a simple term, a hybrid multicloud is the use of hybrid cloud and multicloud models as depicted in diagram 1.

Bringing Transaction and AI Data Worlds Closer: A Notion of Integrated Data Platforms

Authors:

Vaibhav S Dantale – dantalev@gmail.com
Subhendu Dey – subhendu.dey@in.ibm.com
Sandipan Sarkar – sandipansarkar@gmail.com
Ram Ravishankar - ram.ravishankar@gmail.com

Introduction

The recent accelerated adoption of hybrid multi-cloud and cloud-native application architectures is rapidly changing the data architecture landscape. The impact is to both, the transactional data processing domain, and the analytical data processing domain.