Building reliable distributed applications can feel like conducting a sloppy orchestra, where musicians play too loud or can't keep the tempo. As the conductor, you need to set the pace and give instructions to deliver a beautiful performance. When you build microservices and need to coordinate multistep processes, you have to think about the order of execution, time-outs, cascading failures, inconsistent state, and you have very little control to manage the process once it's started.

Dapr Workflow provides a solution through durable execution, a programming model that treats distributed processes like a musical score. Just as a conductor coordinates multiple musicians to play a symphony, Dapr Workflow orchestrates microservices with built-in state persistence, workflow patterns to control the processes in great detail, and workflow management APIs to operate workflows reliably.

In this session, you'll experience microservice orchestration in a completely new way. I'll run several Dapr workflows, written in .NET, that conduct a musical performance, where each workflow step sends events to a front-end that uses Web MIDI to play virtual and physical instruments in real-time. Watch and hear as distributed services play together! I can't guarantee this performance will be the next Top 40 hit, but it will be fun!