About me
Hello, I'm Shota Yamazaki
A solutions architecture leader, open source author and maintainer, based in Tokyo.
I've been designing and reviewing production systems at scale: cloud architecture, distributed systems, large-scale data platforms, and AI. Currently at AWS, where I lead a team of architects serving some of Japan's largest digital platform companies. I work directly with engineering leaders on multi-year technical strategies, and I stay hands-on in architecture decisions.
What I write about
This blog is where I unpack the design decisions behind large-scale production systems. Not "how to use Service X", but what each choice was optimizing for, what it gave up, what broke, and what later changed the answer. Trade-offs, constraints, failure modes. The kind of depth that only comes from building and operating these systems.
Beyond cloud architecture and distributed systems, I also write about AI systems in production, including agentic architectures, and how organizational structure shapes technical decisions.
Architecture Dojo
I'm known for Architecture Dojo, a recurring session at AWS Summit Japan where we tackle real architecture challenges live on stage. It launched in 2022 and consistently draws 2,000+ registrations. I've been a panelist and host. Much of what I write here is shaped by the patterns and trade-offs we explore in those sessions. You can find related posts in the Architecture Dojo series.
OSS
I maintain Fluent plugin for Amazon Kinesis (awslabs, 20M+ downloads) and authored ActivityNotification for Ruby on Rails (500+ stars) and agentverify, a pytest plugin for deterministic testing of AI agents. Still maintaining OSS and writing code. Increasingly with AI.
Disclaimer
All views and opinions expressed on this blog are my own and do not represent those of my employer.
Elsewhere
- GitHub
- Blog mirror on GitHub (machine-readable, useful for AI assistants)