Transitioning to Cloud-Native Microservices

Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win. --Max McKeown

This quote aligns well with transitioning from traditional monolith applications to cloud-native microservices.

According to the Q4 2022 Google Cloud Brand Pulse Survey , 32.8% of business leaders plan to migrate their on-premises workloads to the cloud in response to global economic uncertainty. While building new cloud-native applications is straightforward, transforming and deploying existing legacy monoliths into cloud-native solutions presents complexities. Beyond cultural transformation, companies must develop a robust business model and product architecture to support their cloud transformation journey.?

There are many aspects for a successful transformation from a monolith application to a cloud-native application. Amongst them, a well-architected microservice application is one of the most critical parts of the shift. Over the last few years, numerous companies have adopted cloud-native microservices architecture for scalability, high availability, faster development, and operational ease. However, microservices present challenges in development, deployment, and operations and thus must be well-planned and executed to be beneficial. Otherwise, you'll face complex, hard-to-manage architecture, causing SRE issues and higher costs.

Emphasizing a well-architected microservice application as a vital element, we'll discuss best practices for development, deployment, and operations in this article to help companies optimize their transition efforts and reduce costs.

Development

Reducing time-to-market is paramount to achieving success in today's fast-changing business landscape. Many companies adopt a lift-and-shift approach when transitioning to the cloud, gradually replacing monolithic functionality with targeted microservices. While this approach is popular, its success hinges on adopting proper cloud-native development practices and robust architecture.

Here are key development practices to ensure a successful cloud-native microservices transition:

1. Streamlined Repository Management: Organize repositories based on functional aspects of the service and assign team ownership. This approach simplifies development, testing, and deployment processes.
2. Embrace API-First and Asynchronous Communication: Leverage cloud-native tools like API-first development and asynchronous communication patterns. API-first accelerates development, while asynchronous pattern helps retry mechanisms and build resilience into the system.
3. Protect API Contracts: Ensure the API contract remains backward compatible for smooth interactions between microservices. Creating new versions of the contract for breaking changes is essential.
4. Right Sizing of Microservices: Develop microservices with specific functionalities that perform isolated tasks effectively. Avoid unnecessary proliferation and size each microservice appropriately, conducting load testing early in the development cycle.
5. Implement Thoughtful Logging: Create a common logging system with a well-defined log format pattern for all microservices. This aids in issue analysis and provides end-to-end visibility using traceability tools. However, be mindful of excessive logging to prevent increased storage costs, especially for industries with regulatory retention periods.
6. Hyperscaler Agnostic Development: Focus on core business services instead of reinventing functionalities readily available from hyperscalers. This approach optimizes development efforts and resources.
7. Prioritize Dev SecOps: Ensure proper security measures using third-party libraries for all microservices and safeguarding against cybercrime and data breaches.

Deployment

Microservice architectures ensure ease of deployment. Frequent releases become achievable with a fully automated deployment process, reducing cycle time. To ensure smooth deployment, consider these best practices:

1. Efficient CI/CD Pipeline: Integrate a robust Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipeline early in development. This streamlines development, testing, and deployment processes.
2. Robust Test Strategy: Develop a comprehensive test strategy focusing on continuous integration, ensuring products move seamlessly from development to production deployment. Thoroughly prepared test cases prevent failures, reducing the need for manual intervention and subjective decisions.
3. Consistent Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Maintain consistency in configuration management, infrastructure as code, and deployment procedures across all environments. This ensures reliability and minimizes deployment-related issues.
4. Monitor with Well-Defined SLOs: A strong observability platform must cover all microservices based on service-level objectives (SLOs). Prioritize monitoring service response times alongside memory and CPU utilization for improved quality of service.
5. Strive for Zero Downtime: Aim for zero downtime during deployment, especially for mission-critical applications. Architectural and operational procedures should incorporate zero downtime practices for each service.

Operations

While microservices offer ease of deployment, operational costs related to frequent infrastructure changes, deployments, and updates may increase efforts and expenses. Effective operational practices are crucial.

Consider these best practices:

1. Ensure Backward Compatibility: Continuous updates in tech-based products and services can challenge integration testing. Backward compatibility ensures proper inter-functioning and operations of all contracts, vital for both development and operations strategies.
2. Consider Multiple Operational Strategies: Various operational strategies must be considered when implementing new versions of microservices, depending on the specific application. These strategies, such as rolling update, A/B testing, Blue-Green deployment, and Canary deployment, have their advantages and impact customer experience and the associated rollout costs. It's also essential to have rollback procedures in case of a service deployment causing regressions.
3. ?Focus on High Availability and Scalability: Implement core design principles to enable adaptability, resilience, and a safety net against intermittent glitches. Ensure cloud-native applications provide elasticity to handle increased system loads. Tracking critical metrics, such as request counts for Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA), improves service availability and user experience.
4. Monitor with SLOs: Adopt a robust observability platform to monitor all microservices based on well-defined service-level objectives (SLOs). Monitoring service response times, along with memory and CPU utilization, ensures consistent quality of service.

Transitioning from monolithic applications to cloud-native microservices presents significant advantages for businesses. By following some of the best practices outlined in this article, companies can optimize their cloud transformation journey, reduce operational costs, and stay competitive in today's dynamic business environment. While these best practices are essential guidelines, each organization's unique needs and challenges may require further adaptation and refinement. I encourage readers to share their experiences and insights in the comments section to foster a collaborative knowledge exchange.