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A company I am affiliated with made a decision to rewrite their code in microservices-oriented architecture thinking it would only take one year. Now we're 7 ye

A company I am affiliated with made a decision to rewrite their code in microservices-oriented architecture thinking it would only take one year. Now we're 7 years into the transition and starting to come up against some hard deadlines that threaten revenue streams. It seems obvious to everyone except the leadership and the architects that this has been an unmitigated disaster. Other comments on this thread seem to indicate that many have had similar experiences. For those who are curious, here is a classic article on why rewriting code from scratch is a bad idea: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-.... For a more in-depth analysis on the unforeseen challenges of microservices in particular, I would encourage a lot of careful research into how other companies have tried and failed at this. In particular, I might look at Uber's ongoing difficulties. All I have to say to the Khan Academy engineers is to buckle up because frankly, moving from Python 2->3 is not that hard and you have no idea what you are getting yourself into.

tmpfile 7y ago
this. 100% this.
andy_ppp 7y ago
Yes, the micro services + Golang vanity project because you think you’re Google. I really don’t think people understand error states in distributed systems very well, putting possible network partitions everywhere is not a great idea. I would strongly suggest trying a Golang monolith first and seeing if there are one or two heavily used services that need splitting off. Also monorepo. Always.
- StavrosK 7y ago
  Microservices have always seemed dangerous to me. "Bugs thrive in the seams between libraries, so let's put more and deeper seams in!" Microservices have an immense cost, and you have to make sure they're worth it. Many teams years ago found it a nice pattern and implemented it because why not, and now we're at the "oops this isn't actually amazing" part of the cycle.
  - andy_ppp 7y ago
    If you work at Google where the standard is higher fine, but 99% of places people end up making very buggy stuff that interrelates in weird ways!
- asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
  The really fascinating thing about this tendency is that Google itself never completed nor even really started the wholesale transition of programs and services to Golang/microservices. Google does have services that are micro with respect to the overall codebase. But they aren't what most people out there in the wider world would think of as micro. And Golang remains a niche language at Google, perhaps more popular than server python, but far smaller in usage than Java or C++.
arez 7y ago
Do you have a reference for the uber microservice difficulties?

tmpfile 7y ago

this. 100% this.

andy_ppp 7y ago

Yes, the micro services + Golang vanity project because you think you’re Google. I really don’t think people understand error states in distributed systems very well, putting possible network partitions everywhere is not a great idea. I would strongly suggest trying a Golang monolith first and seeing if there are one or two heavily used services that need splitting off. Also monorepo. Always.

StavrosK 7y ago
Microservices have always seemed dangerous to me. "Bugs thrive in the seams between libraries, so let's put more and deeper seams in!" Microservices have an immense cost, and you have to make sure they're worth it. Many teams years ago found it a nice pattern and implemented it because why not, and now we're at the "oops this isn't actually amazing" part of the cycle.
- andy_ppp 7y ago
  If you work at Google where the standard is higher fine, but 99% of places people end up making very buggy stuff that interrelates in weird ways!
asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
The really fascinating thing about this tendency is that Google itself never completed nor even really started the wholesale transition of programs and services to Golang/microservices. Google does have services that are micro with respect to the overall codebase. But they aren't what most people out there in the wider world would think of as micro. And Golang remains a niche language at Google, perhaps more popular than server python, but far smaller in usage than Java or C++.

arez 7y ago

Do you have a reference for the uber microservice difficulties?