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Not my experience at all. It takes the same skills to manage a monolith as it does managing microservices. However microservices are inherently more complex tha

Not my experience at all. It takes the same skills to manage a monolith as it does managing microservices. However microservices are inherently more complex than monoliths. So they are harder to keep clean/maintainable. All complex problems/systems are solved by breaking them down into smaller problems/systems that can be solved. Using microservices doesn’t make that easier. It actually makes it harder because you now also have to deal with the complexity of a distributed system.

jacquesm 4y ago
The advantages of services and the complexity of distributed systems are obviously at odds with each other and proper architecture is going to be a requirement to be able to use a services oriented setup to its advantage. If your team was bad at systems architecture before attempting such a project then they will do much worse than before. But this is akin to saying that cooks should not use sharp knives because they can cut themselves. Yes they can. But expert cooks would much rather use sharp knives than blunt ones even if they run the risk of cutting themselves. A team of also-rans that go for a services oriented solution in a cargo cult fashion is going to get bogged down by complexity. That's no change from them getting bogged down by using a monolith that turned into a bowl of spaghetti. I've seen microservices applied in ways that made my hair stand on end, every shitty little function was its own service and had its own API. Utter madness. But I've also seen a monolith with several major functional blocks cut up on sensible lines and then dealt with by a much larger number of teams than before with success. Like everything else: if you are doing it wrong no amount of magic is going to help you, you first need to know what it is that you are doing. My best advice if this sounds familiar is that you should up the hiring bar, considerably so. But that will also require paying more per person and companies that have a problem with the former usually also have a problem with the latter.
- mbrodersen 4y ago
  Smart experienced developers use the least complex tool to solve a problem. And monoliths are inherently less complex than microservices. So it’s quite simple really. Unfortunately “beginner experts” tends to pick the most complex tool possible to solve a problem, because they think it somehow demonstrate how skilled/smart they are. Which always amuses the more experienced developers. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion :) I am looking forward to reading the future “we picked microservices because we thought we were clever and it turned into a cluster f*” stories.

jacquesm 4y ago

The advantages of services and the complexity of distributed systems are obviously at odds with each other and proper architecture is going to be a requirement to be able to use a services oriented setup to its advantage. If your team was bad at systems architecture before attempting such a project then they will do much worse than before. But this is akin to saying that cooks should not use sharp knives because they can cut themselves. Yes they can. But expert cooks would much rather use sharp knives than blunt ones even if they run the risk of cutting themselves. A team of also-rans that go for a services oriented solution in a cargo cult fashion is going to get bogged down by complexity. That's no change from them getting bogged down by using a monolith that turned into a bowl of spaghetti. I've seen microservices applied in ways that made my hair stand on end, every shitty little function was its own service and had its own API. Utter madness. But I've also seen a monolith with several major functional blocks cut up on sensible lines and then dealt with by a much larger number of teams than before with success. Like everything else: if you are doing it wrong no amount of magic is going to help you, you first need to know what it is that you are doing. My best advice if this sounds familiar is that you should up the hiring bar, considerably so. But that will also require paying more per person and companies that have a problem with the former usually also have a problem with the latter.

mbrodersen 4y ago
Smart experienced developers use the least complex tool to solve a problem. And monoliths are inherently less complex than microservices. So it’s quite simple really. Unfortunately “beginner experts” tends to pick the most complex tool possible to solve a problem, because they think it somehow demonstrate how skilled/smart they are. Which always amuses the more experienced developers. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion :) I am looking forward to reading the future “we picked microservices because we thought we were clever and it turned into a cluster f*” stories.