Microservices adoption anti-pattern: Focussing on technology

microservices adoption   anti-patterns  

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So far in this series I’ve covered the following anti-patterns

• Microservices are a magic pixie dust
• Microservices as the goal
• Scattershot adoption
• Trying to fly before you can walk

Another anti-pattern that I’ve observed is Focussing on Technology. It occurs when an organization focusses on technology aspects of microservices, most commonly the deployment infrastructure. Unfortunately, focussing on the technology stack is an easy trap to fall into. There are, after all, lots of seriously cool technologies. Kubernetes, Istio and Serverless to name just a few. In addition, there are vendors desperately wanting you to buy their products. If you are a technology VP, spending a lot of money on a vendor’s technology is guaranteed to impress your less technical fellow executives.

Consequences

One problem with focussing on technology is that it’s undifferentiated heavy lifting. On the one hand, you need put together a technology stack that enables you to deploy services rapidly, frequently, and reliably. But on the other hand, having a good technology stack is not a competitive advantage. It’s far more important to correctly define your services and their APIs.

Another problem with focussing on technology is that it can result in the organization making a big upfront investment in a vendor’s product. The problem with buying a $$$ product early on is that the organization chooses the product when it has the least amount of experience with microservices. There is a risk that the organization chooses a product based on marketing (perhaps targeted at the C-suite) rather than solid technical experience.

A better approach

Rather than focussing on technology, a better approach is for the organization to focus on the essence of microservices: service decomposition and definition. It should build just enough infrastructure to support what will initially be just a few services. Later, as the number of services grows and the organization becomes more experienced, it can make much more informed decisions about the technology stack.

• Read my Microservices patterns book
• Read or watch my O’Reilly Software Architecture conference keynote
• Talk to me about my microservices consulting and training services including how I can help you create a microservices migration roadmap for your organization
• Learn more about microservices at adopt.microservices.io