Breaking apart the monolithic mindset

The mind loves to find patterns.

?When you're looking to buy a new car, you can guarantee that you'll spot the car you're thinking about buying everywhere on the roads, in supermarket car parks, etc.

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The same is true with technology trends.

?Once exposed to the compelling concept of "Enterprise Architecting an Ecosystem", as presented by Ana Welch and Andrew Welch at the hugely successful Iberian Technology Summit (link to slides in comments), all of a sudden everywhere you turn people are talking about and showing us how we can break apart our monolithic mindsets.

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Listening to this week's episode of the #AzureDevOps Podcast 微软 's Data Platform and AI Architect Andy Roberts spoke about how a lot of customers who are going to their Technology Centre are looking to break apart #monolithic applications and are moving to the #microservices world.

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This immediately made me think of the recent #PowerCATlive Power CAT 4 video from Lee Zuckett on the topic on the Microsoft Power Platform and SAP - absolutely essential watching for anyone who's heard about #SAP but isn't sure exactly what it is, what it does and its evolution and ongoing journey from:

mainframe monolith, through to a server client-based architecture

to its far more #UI-friendly SAP Fiori ?

and onwards to a Platform Ecosystem that now combines 微软 and SAP technologies.

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Holger Bruchelt , Program Manager for SAP on Azure at Microsoft, explained how in the past SAP allowed developers to go into the code to do modifications and change processes which initially might have been seen as offering the pinnacle of flexibility.?However over time, whenever there was a need or desire to upgrade to a newer version of SAP, these modifications would become a nightmare and make upgrading almost impossible.

?In recent years SAP has introduced a new mantra of Keep the Core Clean:?Don't do any modifications in your SAP system but build extensions and customisations outside of the core.

?This has opened up opportunities for building new technologies, functionalities, user interfaces and automation processes outside of the SAP system using Microsoft Power Platform .?Which was greatly enabled by 微软 's acquisition of Clear Software in October 2021, which has enhanced connectivity through the provision of technical propriety #APIs and a set of prebuilt #PowerApps that make it easier for organisations running SAP to digitally transform and automate their business processes.

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But this move to building microservices isn't just about the breaking apart the monolithic approach of a single system or service provider. It's also being seen within our own #PowerPlatform itself.

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Michael Megel 's recent article about 'Building a Microservice for Power Platform' describes the benefits of building a small microservice as an API for your canvas app in Power Platform, where your PowerApps or Power Automated Flows require addition power in terms of speed or functionality for a certain data processing.

?He achieves this by creating an API in #Python, containerising his created service in a #Docker container and hosting this container as an API in #Azure.?Finally, he uses a #PowerAutomate flow to access the microservice in his canvas app.

Granted this isn't something your average #LowCode developer would necessarily approach; but it's a prime example of where a #Fusion team could work together, with the pro-developer delivering the containerized microservice and the low-coder deploying it via a #Solution in Dataverse and creating the Power Automate Flow and Canvas App to consume it.

?[Especially when you have such generosity from the #community shining the way, such as Michael Megel shows here with the detailed explanations and coding in his article and GitHub repository.].

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It's?important to note, as Prasad Athalye does in the comments to Michael's post, that there's a 'cost' to this Power Platform API microservice approach, as every user using an app like this would need a Per User licence to use the premium connector and consume the microservice.

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Which brings us back to the importance of 'Architecting the Strategic Foundations' if we're going to achieve value-adding gains from looking at applications and development challenges differently during each cycle of strategic renewal.

?During the Azure DevOps podcast, Andy Roberts advised that if you're going to break apart monolithic applications, the same thing also needs to be done at the database level, with the same considerations: picking the right tools and technologies for the individual service.

?He gave the example of how the last 25 years has seen a shift in thinking, with the database now being considered as part of the application and not a separate thing.?

?Although Redgate led the charge on thinking about the #DevOps side of data before there was even something called DevOps, the work that's being done with #GitHubActions and Microsoft Azure DevOps #Pipelines for keeping a database schema up-to-date and in lockstep with an application codebase has accelerated in the past few years.

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If we're going to realise similar long-term benefits from the current trends, we need to break apart the deepest levels of all our monoliths, if we're going to successfully bring them into the "state of the art" light.