20230907 How Composable Architectures can actually solve the reasons for Microservices

Many companies today want a faster time-to-market, more flexibility, and scalability for their digital services. Investments are often made in IT for this, such as a “migration to the cloud” and developing “microservices”. However, the result is often that such a transition and development becomes more complex and more expensive, instead of being able to take advantage of the anticipated benefits. So what causes this? Which aspect is missing from the application of cloud infrastructure and microservices? What can you do to make them beneficial? This is where Composable Architecture comes in! In this session, I will 1) Elaborate on Composable Architecture and how we got there; 2) Define the value of applying composable architectures using the Composable Enterprise as a framework; 3) Share how I applied Composable Architectures in projects, and what I learned from it

Transcript

1. How Composable Architectures can actually solve the reasons for Microservices
3. Your presenter • Principal Consultant with Team Rockstars IT • Loves solving complex, strategic IT challenges • Passionate about collecting and sharing knowledge about improving IT in organizations • Adept with cloud-driven software development in general • Frequent Conference Speaker • Proud member of #teamstroopwafel Edwin Derks Principal Consultant / Composable Enterprise Architect
4. A simplified view of traditional IT Let’s start with…
5. Email CRM HR Office Identity Printing Customized Software 1 Customized Software 2 Firewall DMZ Integration Disaster Recovery Infrastructure Back-up Off-site Hosting IT Services Office Automation An Enterprise Architect’s view of a business
6. IT infrastructure in practice Email CRM HR Office Identity Printing Customized Software 1 Customized Software 2 Firewall DMZ Integration Disaster Recovery Infrastructure Back-up Off-site Hosting IT Services Office Automation Do you recognize: • Tight Coupling • Scalability conflicts • Data inconsistency • DR and back-up strategy gaps ?
7. Email CRM HR Office Identity Printing Customized Software 1 Customized Software 2 Firewall DMZ Integration Disaster Recovery Infrastructure Back-up Off-site Hosting IT Services Office Automation Who owns… what? CxO IT Manager Product Owner ? Do you recognize: • Misaligned ownership • Out-of-sync backlogs • Incompatible interfaces or protocols • Feature gaps
8. Let’s move to the cloud and build Microservices The solution?
9. Monolithic Application Database Micro Service Data- base Micro Service Data- base Micro Service Data- base Are you familiar with: • Cloud migration and adoption • Distributed transactions • Eventual consistency • Unclear source of truth • Distributed monolith • Data governance • Misaligned responsibilities • Back-up complexity • Complex release trains • Exponentially increasing maintenance • Increased cost on development and infrastructure • Version inconsistency and Incompatibility • Observability and security gaps The perils of a moving to the Cloud and Microservices
10. Microservices alone can’t solve these problems Align composability of business and IT The solution: Composable Architectures do!
11. Composable Enterprise to the rescue
13. So… what’s the actual difference? Not Composable Composable Micro Service Data- base Micro Service Data- base Micro Service Data- base Micro Service Data- base Micro Service Data- base Micro Service Data- base
14. Packaged Business Capability • Represents a single, self-sustaining unit of business with mandate and governance to manage itself • Designated skills for people building, maintaining and operating the business logic • No direct dependencies on other PBC’s through API integration and event driven communication
15. 1. Enterprise Vision on digital transform ation 3. Enterprise Integration Platform 2. Business Development Teams Packaged Business Capability The three ingredients for realizing a PBC
16. 1. Enterprise Vision on digital transformation IST SOLL • The enterprise IT roadmap for the modularization and digital transformation of the organization • Includes strategic aspects of the desired business and IT alignment • Provides architectural guidelines, principles and decisions for developers
17. 2. Business Development Teams Complicated Subsystem Teams Enabling Teams Platform Teams Stream Aligned Teams • Dedicated teams for delivering business value, matching their purpose and capabilities • Supporting teams for sustaining business on IT infrastructure • There is a limit on how T-shaped people can become
18. 3. Enterprise Integration Platform • Scalable hosting and development infrastructure, provided as a (self) service for developers • Built and maintained by Platform Team(s) with expertise in cloud infrastructure • Providing generic cross-cutting concerns that take complexity out of business services • Governed by a competence center for sustainability of knowledge, consisting of different kinds of expertise ranging from technical to legal Competence Center Logging Integration Monitoring Database IAM File Storage CI/CD Configuration Messaging Authorization Packaged Business Capability
19. Competence Center Enterprise Integration Platform The result is a platform that supports composable architecture for a composable business • Governance and mandate are fully contained within the PBC • Enterprise Integration Platform provides security and solves cross-cutting IT concerns • Internals of a PBC are abstracted away behind interfaces, API’s and channels • Every PBC is treated equally within the infrastructure: the leveled playing field IT Services Off-Site Hosting Office Automation Externally Exposed APIs External System Outbound communication Service Mesh Internal API’s Ambassadors External System
20. Composable Enterprise: Key Takeaways 1. The IT infrastructure must follow the enterprise vision for which it has been established 2. Business value must be contained within a designated PBC and exposed via API’s and events. Essentially, this is Domain Driven Design for businesses 3. Every aspect of the Composable Enterprise / Architectures must be performed by people with the designated knowledge and skills 1 2 3
21. Composable Enterprise: Where to start? 1. Spot an IT component that feels out of place regarding governance and/or integration for building and operating it 2. Apply Composable Enterprise / Architecture characteristics on the IT component by establishing a new PBC or adopt it in an existing one 3. Optimize the adoption of the IT component within the PBC by improving the infrastructure, business logic and people skills required to build, maintain and operate it 1 2 3
23. “The future of IT is composable” Gartner
24. Are there any Questions?
25. Edwin Derks /in/edwin-derks/ e.derks@teamrockstars.nl Let's connect! @edwinderks @edwinderks@mastodon.social