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Microservices platforms: when team
topologies meets microservices
patterns
Chris Richardson
Founder of Eventuate.io
Founder of the original CloudFoundry.com
Author of POJOs in Action and Microservices Patterns
[email protected]
http://adopt.microservices.io
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pojos
Copyright © 2025. Chris Richardson Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved
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Presentation goal
Accelerating development of
microservices
by using
Team Topologies Platform
groups
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@crichardson
About Chris
http://adopt.microservices.io
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About Chris
https://chrisrichardson.net/
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Microservices Platforms: why?
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Fast
fl
ow for business succe$$ in today’s VUCA world
Development Production
Continuous stream of small changes, many times a day
Continuous feedback and learning
Users
IT
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Organization:
Enables
Enables
Process:
Principles
and practices
for fast
fl
ow
Organizational
patterns for fast
fl
ow
Fast
fl
ow
success
triangle
Fast
fl
ow architecture:
(at scale)
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Team topologies: organizational patterns and
principles for fast
fl
ow
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Cognitive overload: an obstacle to fast
fl
ow
Reduces team performance
Impacts mental health: stress,
burnout. DevEx
Work environment than
minimizes interruptions,
meaningful work, …
Minimize - simplify
environment, automate,
good documentation,
…
Fast feedback
from colleagues,
tools,
deployment
pipeline,
production,
users, …
Feedback
Flow
Cognitive load
Great
https://premium.microservices.io/microservices-rules-4-provide-a-great-developer-experience/
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Microservice architecture: two or more components
Production
Deployment
pipeline
Service
Repo
Deployment
pipeline
Service
Repo
Deployment
pipeline
Service
Repo
Independently deployable
Loosely coupled
Service
Service
Service
Some system operations
span multiple services
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Bene
fi
t of Microservices: enables independent
stream-aligned teams
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Challenge: Using microservices => numerous sub-
issues to resolve
https://microservices.io/patterns/microservices.html
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Implementing patterns can be challenging
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More than patterns…
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… more than patterns
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Solution: Use platforms owned by platform groups
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About platform group(ing)s
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Bene
fi
ts of platforms and platform groups
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Microservices Platforms + Teams
Applicability: organizations building multiple components
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Microservices Platforms: simplifying service creation
and maintenance
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Each service needs extensive plumbing, build logic, …
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No content
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Pattern: Service Template
https://microservices.io/patterns/service-template.html
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Drawback: plumbing evolves => update everywhere
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Pattern: Service chassis
https://microservices.io/patterns/microservice-chassis.html
Release new
version
Use new
version
Use new
version
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Propagating service template changes to the services
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Microservices Platforms: security
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Security architecture: authentication and
authorization…
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…Security architecture: transport-level security
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Security platform
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Microservices Platforms: provisioning infrastructure
services
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Services need infrastructure services
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Solution: Infrastructure services platform
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Infrastructure orchestrator example: Crossplane
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Microservices Platforms: understanding application
behavior
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The need for observability
Essential for reliable
deployments
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An observable service
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About observability patterns
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Observability platform
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Microservices Platforms: the path from laptop to
production
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Every service has a deployment pipeline
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Provided by a build platform
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Microservices Platforms: deployment platform
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Build and deployment platforms: deployment pipeline
and production environment
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Deployment platform
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Example: Kubernetes/GitOps based deployment
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Microservices Platforms: how?
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https://thenewstack.io/why-up-to-70-of-platform-engineering-teams-fail-to-deliver-
impact/
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Platforms:
A way to avoid addressing
dif
fi
cult people/customer problems
by diving into the in
fi
nity pool of technology
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Services-
fi
rst, platforms-later
Focus on the services, not the platforms
De
fi
ne/evolve platforms to solve actual problems
that affect multiple teams
https://microservices.io/post/antipatterns/2019/04/30/antipattern-focus-on-technology.html
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@crichardson
Aim for the Thinnest Viable Platform (TVP)
“Most internal platforms become bloated
monstrosities that slow teams down rather than
accelerate progress.
The TVP approach creates platforms that provide
just enough capability without unnecessary
complexity.
A good platform should make stream-aligned teams
move faster, not generate more dependencies to
manage.”
WARNING
!
https://teamtopologies.com/key-concepts
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Adopt a customer-focused mindset
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Summary: microservices require platforms…
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…Summary: microservices platforms needed
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Summary: apply DRY to improve maintainability
Develop reusable components
Libraries and frameworks
Custom build tool plugins
Custom CI/CD components
IaC modules: Helm Library charts, …
…
Avoid copy/paste
=
code generation, large
templates
Provide tooling to automate updates of template instances
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Summary: focus on the services - not technology
• De
fi
ne platform groups that help service
teams
• Build minimal platforms (TVPs) that solve
actual problems
Focus on the services
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[email protected]
http://adopt.microservices.io
Questions?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/pojos