DevOps and microservices are hot trends in the tech world, but do they work well together?
DevOps tears down the walls between Operations and Development in order to create a rapid, automated process that enables the fastest possible development of software. Under DevOps, both operations engineers and development engineers are jointly involved in the entire software lifecycle, from design through the development process to support.
The microservices style of architecture develops complex application software from small, individual applications that communicate with each other using language-independent interfaces (APIs). Microservices break down complex tasks into smaller processes that work independently of each other. Microservices allow for rapid changes and short release times along with high scalability and autonomous teams.
Microservices and DevOps together
Separately, both practices offer great agility and heightened efficiency for an enterprise. Together, they have a huge impact on each part of operations - from the IT landscape to business decisions.
By utilizing a combination of microservices and DevOps, Amazon engineers deploy code every 11.7 seconds, on average—reducing both the number and duration of outages at the same time. Netflix engineers deploy code thousands of times per day.
Benefits of using DevOps on a microservice architecture:
- Increased productivity & reliability - Quick solutions may be reached when applications are built on microservices architecture versus monolothic architectures. When applications are created on different servers, issues affecting one part of the application can be isolated and remedied, as opposed to when applications built on monolithic services, the whole application could fail. Scalability is an innate feature of microservices.
- Availability - Monolithic architecture supports round-the-clock availability. Deploying a new feature or service requires little to no downtime.
- Speed - Microservice framework offers increased agility, and allows for quick results, rapid reiteration and quicker times to deployment.
- Flexibility - With microservices, application components are loosely coupled which make them easier to work with. This framework also supports the quick consumption of new data sources and libraries.
- Management - Microservices can leverage the agile methodology, where the application development effort is divided across teams that are smaller and work more independently.
Implementing DevOps in your enterprise brings more than just faster times to deploy, it also brings a different approach to organizational structures and development in your company. Microservices and DevOps combined embrace common goals - increasing agility, accountability, speed, flexibility, and easy code management. DevOps and microservices work seamlessly when applied together.
