Getting The Best Out Of Microservices
An experienced professional of 22+ years in the telecom value added industry contributing to research and development of projects and skilled in building API-driven cloud native, containerized, and microservices based nextGen solutions.
Microservices adoption has been a rising trend in recent years among the forward-thinking application development organizations. Besides the financial advantages of choosing the right architecture, there are many advantages on the DevOps side as well.
While 'microservices' may be the most hyped buzzword in 2021, it is not the magic potion to solve every challenge. There are several factors to evaluate before deciding the architecture of choice. Once you decide to initiate microservices into your architecture, it must be designed carefully before you get the best outcome.
Monolithic and SOA architectures are being replaced in the quest for continuous improvement.
Some of the biggest companies on the planet including Netflix and Amazon have adopted micro services as they strive to continuously transform their business operations. This has meant moving away from monolithic and Service Oriented Architecture(SOA)frameworks.
A microservices architecture is about creating multiple smaller programs, instead of one large program. In a microservices architecture, developers create a small independent program for each business capability. So, adding a business capability would only require the creation of another small program.
The drivers for shifting to microservices are to have a framework that is both distributed and independent while establishing a DevOps model that enables automation and efficiency.
Since the application is broken into smaller chunks, it makes it easier to develop and maintain. Each module can scale independently since each service can be independently deployed and updated. Failure of a single module won't affect the rest of the application.
Microservices architecture is an advantage only if you design and implement it right!
The most critical factor is getting the design right. Whether you are refactoring an existing monolithic application or building a new application with microservices, carefully think through how it affects overall system performance since these decisions will impact operational resources.
THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA SHOULD BE CONSIDERED DURING ARCHITECTURE DESIGN:
Highly Observable-Ensure the technology stack enables quick fault diagnosis and performance monitoring. Carefully select your microservices technology stack by choosing components based on business needs.
Consumer-First Approach-Always design the system with the end user in mind. Performance, reliability, and user experience should always be continuously evaluated.
Modeled Around The Business Domain-Break the system down by business capability so that each business capability brings its own front end, backend and database layers. Merging multiple business capabilities into one microservice or creating too many microservices results in an over-complicated system.
Decentralization Of Components-Make microservices as independent as possible so that communication among microservices over APIs can be minimized.
Support For AutomationEnsure the DevOps tools stack is identified early in the process so that automation can be built-in from day one.
Proper API Documentation-Defineand document the APIsbefore microservices development starts, so services can communicate over standard interfaces.
REALIZING THE BENEFITS OF MICRO-SERVICES
Are microservices applicable to all types of products? Not necessarily. Each business should take a call judiciously, based on system complexity and business requirements.
A monolithic architecture may be the right solution based on your circumstances. Smaller apps that need to build fast and go-to-market, products requiring fewer updates, or products with high throughputs may not be ideally suited for microservices. Decomposing monolithic applications into micro services can also present a formidable challenge in sectors like banking.
For companies who successfully integrate microservices, the benefits are multi-dimensional:
Product Scalability And Faster Deployment:Delivers the ability to quickly scale by spinning up or down instances of microservices based on demand.
Efficiency:Smaller development teams are easier to manage, communicate better and provide faster delivery as they can cater to a new chan By Manish Jain, CTO, Comviva Technologies Limited request autonomously.
Tech Agnostic: Ability to use different technology stacks for different services means the technology best suited for the job can be utilized.
Improved Upgradability:As development is localized and release upgrades need less time for coding, testing and deploying.
Customer Satisfaction:Change requests from customers get delivered quicker.
COMMON PITFALLS TO AVOID WITH MICROSERVICES ADOPTION
In a survey by TechRepublic, the major reasons for not adopting microservices were cited as Lack of proper skill-sets, Unfamiliarity with microservices, too many legacy systems, and Lack of corporate support. Both technological and cultural factors should be addressed to avoid these common mistakes:
Thinking That Microservice Is The Solution To Everything:teams might blindly opt for a microservices architecture rather than considering more practical solutions to solve problems.
Overengineering: Without proper skillsets you may end up overengineering the microservices, making the system too complex to manage.
InterDependent Services:Leads to a slowdown in system performance.
Lack of Loose Coupling: Tightly coupled services end up deploying the entire set of microservices/ all the time, consuming higher resources for deployment.
Modifying Apis Too Often:Makes rollout of updates slower as testing needs go beyond one microservice.
The promise of microservices to help manage applications better is well established, but the transition can be complex. Success is based on certain critical success factors. While organizations may approach microservices implementation differently for different use cases these best practices are found to be universal factors in determining successful outcomes.
Microservices adoption has been a rising trend in recent years among the forward-thinking application development organizations. Besides the financial advantages of choosing the right architecture, there are many advantages on the DevOps side as well.
While 'microservices' may be the most hyped buzzword in 2021, it is not the magic potion to solve every challenge. There are several factors to evaluate before deciding the architecture of choice. Once you decide to initiate microservices into your architecture, it must be designed carefully before you get the best outcome.
Monolithic and SOA architectures are being replaced in the quest for continuous improvement.
Some of the biggest companies on the planet including Netflix and Amazon have adopted micro services as they strive to continuously transform their business operations. This has meant moving away from monolithic and Service Oriented Architecture(SOA)frameworks.
A microservices architecture is about creating multiple smaller programs, instead of one large program. In a microservices architecture, developers create a small independent program for each business capability. So, adding a business capability would only require the creation of another small program.
The drivers for shifting to microservices are to have a framework that is both distributed and independent while establishing a DevOps model that enables automation and efficiency.
Since the application is broken into smaller chunks, it makes it easier to develop and maintain. Each module can scale independently since each service can be independently deployed and updated. Failure of a single module won't affect the rest of the application.
The promise of microservices to help manage applications better is well established, but the transition can be complex
Microservices architecture is an advantage only if you design and implement it right!
The most critical factor is getting the design right. Whether you are refactoring an existing monolithic application or building a new application with microservices, carefully think through how it affects overall system performance since these decisions will impact operational resources.
THE FOLLOWING CRITERIA SHOULD BE CONSIDERED DURING ARCHITECTURE DESIGN:
Highly Observable-Ensure the technology stack enables quick fault diagnosis and performance monitoring. Carefully select your microservices technology stack by choosing components based on business needs.
Consumer-First Approach-Always design the system with the end user in mind. Performance, reliability, and user experience should always be continuously evaluated.
Modeled Around The Business Domain-Break the system down by business capability so that each business capability brings its own front end, backend and database layers. Merging multiple business capabilities into one microservice or creating too many microservices results in an over-complicated system.
Decentralization Of Components-Make microservices as independent as possible so that communication among microservices over APIs can be minimized.
Support For AutomationEnsure the DevOps tools stack is identified early in the process so that automation can be built-in from day one.
Proper API Documentation-Defineand document the APIsbefore microservices development starts, so services can communicate over standard interfaces.
REALIZING THE BENEFITS OF MICRO-SERVICES
Are microservices applicable to all types of products? Not necessarily. Each business should take a call judiciously, based on system complexity and business requirements.
A monolithic architecture may be the right solution based on your circumstances. Smaller apps that need to build fast and go-to-market, products requiring fewer updates, or products with high throughputs may not be ideally suited for microservices. Decomposing monolithic applications into micro services can also present a formidable challenge in sectors like banking.
For companies who successfully integrate microservices, the benefits are multi-dimensional:
Product Scalability And Faster Deployment:Delivers the ability to quickly scale by spinning up or down instances of microservices based on demand.
Efficiency:Smaller development teams are easier to manage, communicate better and provide faster delivery as they can cater to a new chan By Manish Jain, CTO, Comviva Technologies Limited request autonomously.
Tech Agnostic: Ability to use different technology stacks for different services means the technology best suited for the job can be utilized.
Improved Upgradability:As development is localized and release upgrades need less time for coding, testing and deploying.
Customer Satisfaction:Change requests from customers get delivered quicker.
COMMON PITFALLS TO AVOID WITH MICROSERVICES ADOPTION
In a survey by TechRepublic, the major reasons for not adopting microservices were cited as Lack of proper skill-sets, Unfamiliarity with microservices, too many legacy systems, and Lack of corporate support. Both technological and cultural factors should be addressed to avoid these common mistakes:
Thinking That Microservice Is The Solution To Everything:teams might blindly opt for a microservices architecture rather than considering more practical solutions to solve problems.
Overengineering: Without proper skillsets you may end up overengineering the microservices, making the system too complex to manage.
InterDependent Services:Leads to a slowdown in system performance.
Lack of Loose Coupling: Tightly coupled services end up deploying the entire set of microservices/ all the time, consuming higher resources for deployment.
Modifying Apis Too Often:Makes rollout of updates slower as testing needs go beyond one microservice.
The promise of microservices to help manage applications better is well established, but the transition can be complex. Success is based on certain critical success factors. While organizations may approach microservices implementation differently for different use cases these best practices are found to be universal factors in determining successful outcomes.
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