Microservices Architecture All MIS603

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MODULE 6 INTRODUCTIONMODULE 6 INTRODUCTION

Microservices in practice

Introduction:

| Airbnb | Uber | Soundcloud | Spotify | Groupon | Gilt | Facebook | eBay | Amazon

| Net�ix | Etsy | Hootsuite | Instagram | MuleSoft |Twitter |

What do these companies have in common?

They do not all address the same markets; they are not in the same business.

But…..they are all digital, you might say. And that would be correct. But beyond that –

these are all companies that have experienced rapid growth and a need to scale

swiftly and smoothly. Some of them were frustrated and constrained by monoliths

and yet others innovated and tried several di�erent approaches to solve their needs

for rapid shipping of code to address the business needs. These are all hyper growth

companies that turned to microservices architecture to allow them to keep pace with

the rapidly changing demands of their customers.

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Early pioneers

Adrian Cockcroft joined Net�ix in 2007, as they were trying to build their solutions for

scale. In an interview with Derrick Harris, he discusses how moving Net�ix to the

cloud over the period of 2009 to 2010 was considered as preferable to Net�ix building

large-scale data centres of their own because they wanted to focus their investment

on content which they considered to be their core business. This opened the door for

a partnership between Net�ix and Amazon, using the Amazon Web Services platform

where they were able to pay monthly for the use of the service rather than detracting

from their investment in content with a large capital investment in technology. As he

explains it – ’I could build a datacentre – or I could buy another season of House of

Cards, and we’ll just keep paying for datacentres as we go.’ This thinking when it

comes to ‘cloud’ is not unusual – as an ongoing operational item, it can be valuable to

pay a much smaller fee for use, than make large investments in technology that is not

a core part of your o�ering.

Cockcroft identi�es how they slowly transitioned parts of code to the cloud, starting

with an auto-complete service for viewers searching for a movie to watch. A service –

a very small service was built – a microservice. And from this the Net�ix engineers

were able to learn how to split and transition their monolith into the cloud as a series

of microservices. Cockcroft references how the transition was incremental and

organic – designed to be dynamic with an API-driven infrastructure – and attributes its

naming as ‘microservices’ to the consultants at ThoughtWorks. Microservices

architecture is now maturing into a software engineering discipline – some of the

original thinking by those ThoughtWorks consultants, James Lewis and Martin Fowler,

remains. More of a philosophy than a rule bound method, designed to be �exible and

loosely coupled, think product rather than project – with autonomous context bound

services – microservices architecture is now a well-supported discipline with platform

solutions to help developers, and a range of tools to enhance capability. We will

discuss these in Module 6.1 and 6.2.

References

Calcado, P. (2014). Building Products at SoundCloud – Part I: Dealing with the Monolith. Retrieved from https://developers.soundcloud.com/blog/building-products-at-soundcloud-

part-1-dealing-with-the-monolith

Geitney, A. (2013, October 30). I-Tier: Dismantling the Monolith [Blog Post]. Retrieved from

https://engineering.groupon.com/2013/misc/i-tier-dismantling-the-monoliths/

Haddad, E. (2015, September 8). Service-oriented Architecture: Scaling the Uber

Engineering Codebase As We Grow [Blog Post]. Retrieved from

https://eng.uber.com/service-oriented-architecture/

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Harris, D. (2015, May 30). Talking microservices with the man who made Net�ix’s cloud

famous [Blog Post] Retrieved from https://medium.com/s-c-a-l-e/talking-microservices-

with-the-man-who-made-net�ix-s-cloud-famous-1032689afed3

Xintong. (2017, August 12). How Hootsuite does Microservices [Blog Post] Retrieved from

https://medium.com/hootsuite-engineering/how-hootsuite-does-microservices-

cfc49e654bc0

This Module will cover:

Module 6.1 – Platforms for Building Microservices

Module 6.2 – The Microservices toolkit

This Module will help you achieve the following outcomes:

a) Undertake research to demonstrate an understanding of microservices and how they contribute to business process.

b) Discuss core concepts of microservices architecture within a context of a business case study and summarise the advantages and disadvantages of adopting microservices architecture.

c) Communicate the bene�ts of microservices architecture to a diverse stakeholder audience by addressing complex business needs and aligning strategies to business priorities de�ned by changing business requirements.

d) Analyse and evaluate moral and ethical considerations in speci�c security and privacy issues while transitioning to new technologies.

Time Management:

Your workload expectation is 20 hours for this module.

12 Week Delivery:

20 hours per module (two weeks): facilitated study: 3 hours / week. Personal Study: 7 hours / week.

3 hours facilitated study consists of attending class, responding to facilitator feedback.

You are to allocate 7 hours of personal learning. This includes essential time spent on pre-reading and viewing materials, assessment progression and learning activities.

Assessment Progression:

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Tasks to undertake in this module to prepare for Assessment 3 include the targeted

readings, video clips and exercises in this module.

You can prepare for this assessment by utilising the learning resources of this module

which include readings, videos, and learning activities to enhance your understanding

of the key concepts in this module. Please note that the areas of security and risk are

ever changing and ever advancing as new knowledge is created to thwart bad actors.

As part of developing your capability for life-long learning in this pivotal area, it is

expected that you research beyond the material indicated in this module or in class

and show evidence of this in your assessment. Developing a portfolio of trusted

resources to maintain currency of your professional insights will be vital to success on

this assessment and your professional life in the future.

Class Expectation:

You are expected to have worked through the essential learning resources and activities for this module before attending the facilitated session (face to face or online session) – this enables informed discussion and full participation in learning activities.

Participate in all scheduled facilitated sessions.

This time is intended to be used by you and your learning facilitator to work through activities and engage in discussion about the module content.

These sessions provide a space for you to raise questions about the module content and seek guidance on writing your assessments.

You will review, explore and discuss more deeply the information presented in the learning resources.