A Hybrid Microservice Monolith Approach Makes Sense for Today’s Organizations

There is no doubt that the rapid adoption of microservice architecture in the last few years has caused a fundamental shift in how we build new enterprise applications. The fact is...

A shift in how we build new enterprise applications

Introduction

There is no doubt that the rapid adoption of microservice architecture in the last few years has caused a fundamental shift in how we build new enterprise applications. The fact is that most organizations can’t start from scratch. They have dozens if not hundreds of existing applications built with monolithic architecture and limited developers to come in and simply replace those applications wholesale.

Does this mean those organizations are stuck with their monolith systems? Not at all. The bigger the monolith and the more custom business logic code you add to it, the more money, time, and staff it costs to maintain it. Do they have to fund years-long projects to convert all their monoliths to a microservice architecture, going head-on with some of the drawbacks that exist therein? No again.

Hybrid Approach

The power of the hybrid approach is clear. Using microservices as a wrapper enables organizations to rapidly create and deploy new business functionality, gaining the benefits of microservices while minimizing the downside. It leaves your Microservices monoliths relatively untouched while exposing their domain services as small, agile microservices that organizations can use to orchestrate business logic—rather than embedding that logic in custom code in the monoliths.

curbside pickup.jpg

Delivering an entire curbside pickup solution in less than six weeks for a major retailer is just one example of the hybrid approach success. Our approach enables software developers to build complex, engaging solutions for just about any industry: retail, financial, education, healthcare, high-growth startups—you name it. That’s because enterprises in every industry struggle with modernizing infrastructures that are based on monolithic systems.

So, why isn’t everyone doing this? For one thing, it is a new pattern that not many development teams are familiar with. For another, when executed poorly, you can easily negate all the potential benefits. One of the main reasons is that many internal IT and development shops don’t yet have experience with the latest technologies or the agile development needed to quickly and correctly deliver a microservice architecture. Even the most dedicated and enthusiastic team may not be quite ready and able to embrace the agility needed to deliver the innovation their organizations require.

Development Process

Some of the tell-tale signs that your development process is too rigid, and you really should look at microservices are when an IT development team says it needs:

  • To compromise the user experience for the convenience of existing systems’ infrastructure and architecture
  • Weeks of planning before starting to write any code
  • Months of effort before there’s anything to show for it
  • Complex plans for release chains and synchronizing releases
  • Piles of money for new hardware, dev, test, and production environments

Any organization can benefit from adopting a microservice architecture, not just giant companies, but it does take experience to get it right. It is hard to get the domain decomposition and size of the services correct without having some experience, so be careful jumping into microservices. What’s important is that you use microservices pragmatically to fit your company, your own needs, and your own resources—or you risk losing most if not all of the benefits.

Have a look at more benefits of Microservices when you download our free White Paper Microservices: The Good, The Bad, and the Better. For more information on how JBS Custom Software Solutions’ hybrid approach to microservices can address your modernization and digital transformation efforts, contact us today.

The JBS Quick Launch Lab

Free Qualified Assessment

Quantify what it will take to implement your next big idea!

Our assessment session will deliver tangible timelines, costs, high-level requirements, and recommend architectures that will work best. Let JBS prove to you and your team why over 24 years of experience matters.

Get Your Assessment