Adopt Microservices in T minus 4 weeks

The term ‘Monolithic’ is a great draw for tourists wanting to witness the otherworldly architectural skills of the ancients. But in the world of technology, the story is more than a little bit different. In fact, it’s the polar opposite! Today, Monolithic Apps are seen as bulky, difficult, complex and limited. Microservices frameworks are not only more preferred by employees but are better for business too. The benefits of adopting microservices far outweigh the often painful switch from monolithic apps.
With businesses looking to make their presence felt across multiple platforms and every single offering and department having a digital footprint, relying on monoliths can get convoluted. That means your app can quickly turn into a gargantuan monstrosity if left unmonitored. Add to that the knowledge that every monster has an Achilles’ heel, and we’ve got ourselves a problem. The monolith’s tendency to take a hit in one area and make the effects felt in other areas can be truly terrifying in an age of CX taking precedence over almost everything else.

Let’s Migrate!

Usually, most businesses don’t need to be convinced to make the move, but the migration to microservices is nowhere near easy. Let’s draw parallels to ‘The Great Migration’ in the plains of Africa. The journey is fraught with danger, peril and high costs, but with an experienced leader guiding you along, greener pastures await.
But what are these ‘greener pastures’?

Here’s what you can expect on the other side of this migration,

• Modular applications, each with a different set of responsibilities
• Ease of extensionality and maintenance
• Small teams responsible for end-to-end development of microservices that work together
• Quick and cost-effective updates where updating one app doesn’t require changing any other apps
• Rapid growth of business’s core capabilities and scaling as per demand
• Agile delivery of value at crowd-pleasing, lightning speeds
• Increased scale of operations and accelerated pace of change

and much more!

It’s no wonder that business giants like Netflix, Amazon and eBay have all packed up and moved to the microservices architecture way of life.
But it’s not called the ‘great’ migration for nothing! A project as ambitious as this is bound to have its fair share of pitfalls like a lack of standardization across platforms, not getting the communication between apps right or choosing the wrong sequence of migration.
(Hint: Don’t experiment with your most critical customer-facing application)

How we do it

Persistent’s experience guiding businesses to the microservices architecture way of life has helped create a specific 17-step migration methodology that works. The focus during the process stays on providing unparalleled services without compromising on great customer experience.

17 steps to being MSA certified

Persistent’s 17 steps empowers clients to help them fully understand the architectural paradigm which continues to lean toward being more application centric. The focus is on assessing and internalizing the key characteristics of MSA before anything else.

The approach to problem solving and dealing with challenges along the way is firmly based on a design thinking approach and masterfully selecting the right MSA pattern that perfectly suits the client’s needs.

Existing investments and tech debts are also considered while evaluating the technology building blocks required for MSA.

Past this point, it is all about selecting frameworks, refactor codes, splitting the monolith incrementally, repackaging applications and acing the art of scaling.

Migration to MSA: A Netflix Story

When issues in one stack caused problems in several others and the ‘ease of usability’ scale plummeted rapidly, Netflix decided to make a change. What came next was a move to a cloud-based microservices architecture that today has become capable of handling the incremental success it is witnessing.

Here, we dwell on the insights Netflix gathered along the way. Some of their top learnings from the exercise were,

• Creating a Separate Data Store for Each Microservice
• Keeping Code at a Similar Level of Maturity
• Having a Separate Build for Each Microservice
• Deploying in Containers
• Treating Servers as Stateless

Netflix was one of the first companies to recognize the merits of migrating to MSA and their resounding success certainly has something to do with making that move early and swiftly.

So, what’s the bottom-line?

Picking a guide with a detailed methodology in place, several successful projects under the belt and partnerships with the top tech and platform providers, is imperative. A great leader in this space boasts clients ranging from HR services to media, and the ability to accommodate a herd that is as diverse as they come!

Just like the mammoths or dinosaurs, large units are more vulnerable and unsustainable in the long run. Extinction is a real possibility for the monolith! Lucky for you, you aren’t stuck being a massive monolith! Are you ready to evolve?