Fred Lackey

Building
Software
With Clarity

A software developer writing about architecture, systems thinking, and the craft of building things that last. Clean code. Clear thinking. No noise.

12+ Years Building

48 Published Articles

3 Core Topics

Featured Writing

Selected articles on software and systems

Architecture

Distributed Systems Don't Have to Be Distributed Nightmares

Most teams reach for microservices before they've earned them. Here's a framework for deciding when monoliths, modular monoliths, and distributed systems each make sense, and how to migrate between them without losing your mind.

February 10, 2026

DevOps

About

I'm Fred Lackey, a software developer focused on backend systems, cloud infrastructure, and developer tooling. I write about the things I learn building production software, the mistakes that taught me the most, and the principles that survived every framework migration.