Techniques for Implementing Microservices and Cloud

“It’s our job as technologists to understand when to use which technology because even 30 years after the ‘No Silver Bullet’ paper there still aren’t any silver bullets in software delivery,” urges Erik Doernenburg, Head of Technology, Thoughtworks Europe.

This timely podcast includes a thought provoking discussion between Sam Newman, Thoughtworks consultant, and Erik in which they contemplate the advantages and disadvantages of microservices and cloud computing.

During the conversation, Erik advises listeners that the focus should be on the implementation of the actual services and not on the "glue" in between the services.

Sam offers up an analogy, saying implementing an architecture based on microservices is like working with marble. You must chip away gradually. “It’s an incremental thing, not an upfront exercise,” he says.

Given the hype in the marketplace, you’d think that cloud and microservices are universally appropriate for all situations. And of course that’s not true. At the same time, microservices combined with cloud computing and a devops culture finally deliver many of the benefits that were the original goals of service-oriented architectures; most prominently, a shift from stitched-together and hard-to-replace monolithic applications to a portfolio of services that provides agility to the business and a sustainable environment for future growth and evolution.

As an approach to software development gains popularity, people often look for best practices and instant fixes rather than pieces that can be put together. The good news is that lots of people are talking and sharing successes. In closing, Erik asks listeners to understand, however, that success in one organization does not mean guaranteed success in yours. 

More episodes of the Thoughtworks Podcast can be found at SoundCloud, iTunes, Stitcher, or via RSS.

Production support and additional content provided by Reyne Quackenbush.