From Monolith to Microservices: Big rewards from small software architecture

The latest trend in the agile movement to break down big software systems into smaller components is called microservices and it is gathering steam, according to an expert in the field.

“Inside a monolith is a mind-numbingly complicated hairball of messed up stuff,” said Adrian Cockcroft, Technology Fellow at Battery Ventures, at a recent QCon conference. “That’s why it’s so hard to deploy anything.”

The trouble with big systems is that it takes only one small thing to bring them crashing down. When a single missing semi-colon led to a major database corruption at Netflix in 2008, the company realized that change was needed. Cockcroft, a cloud architect at Netflix at the time, led a transition to a cloud-based microservices architecture involving smaller, independent, modular software services.

It’s an extension of the agile and DevOps movement which seeks to streamline internal company processes to provide a better customer experience.  Organizations that deploy small chunks of code can continuously deploy service improvements, and if something breaks, it’s very easy to see what changed.  Implementation of microservices is the secret behind companies like Netflix, Amazon and Hootsuite, which are always ahead of the curve.

“Companies that are doing this well are disrupting the rest of their industry,” said Cockcroft.  “The best architectures are the ones that are designed to evolve continuously.”

To learn more about how a microservice architecture can make your organization more agile, you can  participate in the upcoming webinar:

How Microservice Architectures Deliver the Agility That Corporations Need

Wednesday, September 21, 2016 – 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM ET
The webinar features ITWC CIO Jim Love and Matt McLarty, Vice President, API Academy, CA Technologies and co-author of Microservice Architecture: Aligning Principles, Practices and Culture.
Register Now

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Steve Proctor
Steve Proctorhttp://www.itworldcanada.com
Steve is Vice-President Marketing and Communication with ITWC. He spent 25 years in progressively senior positions as a journalist and editor with the Halifax Herald, with his final ten years as Business Editor. He has published two books and his freelance articles have appeared in national and regional magazines. He has led social media and communication efforts for two crowdfunding ventures and written and directed numerous dinner theatres for charitable endeavours.

Featured Articles

Cybersecurity in 2024: Priorities and challenges for Canadian organizations 

By Derek Manky As predictions for 2024 point to the continued expansion...

Survey shows generative AI is a top priority for Canadian corporate leaders.

Leaders are devoting significant budget to generative AI for 2024 Canadian corporate...

Related Tech News

Tech Jobs

Our experienced team of journalists and bloggers bring you engaging in-depth interviews, videos and content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives.

Tech Companies Hiring Right Now