Today we introduced the next in a series of white papers about migration entitled “Taking the Cloud-Native Approach with Microservices.” This paper switches gears from “lift-and-shift,” and introduces the idea of “move-and-improve.” If you missed the first white paper, you can read the blog and download a copy.
The white paper provides context on monolithic software application architecture, as well as microservices architecture. You’ll also learn about the shortcomings of monoliths: They can be challenging to scale properly, and their faults are harder to isolate. Deploying monoliths can also be cumbersome and time consuming, and they generally require a long-term commitment to a particular technology stack. Alternatively, microservices are thought to be more agile, fault-resilient and scalable, because the application is modularized into a system of small services with well-defined, narrowly scoped functions and APIs.
PetShop is an eCommerce website reference implementation that is well known within both the Java and Microsoft .NET development communities, and the white paper uses it to step through the process of deconstructing a monolith into microservices. Specifically, the paper considers three different layers that may or may not be deployed in different physical tiers: the presentation, business logic and data access layers.
In addition, you’ll be introduced to the concept of domain-driven design (DDD), which advocates modeling based on a business’s practical use cases. In its simplest form, DDD consists of decomposing a business domain into smaller functional chunks, at either the business function or business process level, so that the complexity of both a business and problem domain can be better understood and resolved through your application.
Download your copy of the white paper, and GitHub repositories; then, take a look at how you can deconstruct the PetShop reference implementation and build a microservice-based version. You’ll be well on your way to deconstructing and rebuilding your own monoliths!
