WTF Are Microservices?

5 November 2020

Our new ‘WTF Is Cloud Native’ project is aimed at educating and growing a community around a new world, one that we’re defining together. 

Our first WhatTheF*&kInar (we’ve chatted to Oxford about getting the term officially recognised. *fingers crossed*), gives you a 90-minute crash course in microservices architecture: WTF it is, but also when you should and shouldn’t use it. 

Microservices is an approach to application development in which a large app is built as a suite of components, or services. This enables each component to be isolated, rebuilt, redeployed, and managed independently. A service can generate alerts, log data, support UIs and authentication, and perform various other tasks.

Microservices play an independent role while fitting into the system as a whole; when you need to upgrade or change something, the rest of your application can run uninterrupted.

Also included in this video: WTF is the Goss, a roundup of Cloud Native industry news.

You can watch it all here:

Why the F should I care?

With this modular approach to application development, microservice architecture allows development teams to focus on the goals at hand without worrying about the ripple effect. It saves time, money, energy, and brain power– so developers can focus on things that matter, like innovation, continuous delivery of software, and creating the occasional meme.

The takeaways 

• An understanding of what microservices are
• How microservices can improve turnaround time, efficiency, quality, and reliability 
• The problems microservices introduce, and when they might not be appropriate to use.
• An itch to make the transition from Monolith to Microservices
• Understanding steps needed to start making the transition

Who are the speakers?

Sam Newman, author of Monolith to Microservices, is now updating his previous book, Building MIcroservices, both published by O’Reilly. Sam is an independent consultant and frequent presenter.

Jamie Dobson, co-founder and CEO of Container Solutions, a professional services company that specialises in Cloud Native transformation. With clients like Shell, Adidas, and other large enterprises, CS helps organisations navigate not only technology solutions but also adapt their internal culture and set business strategy. Jamie is the co-author of the new book Cloud Native Transformation: Practical Patterns for Innovation, (O'Reilly Media, 2020). A veteran software engineer, he specialises in leadership and organisational strategy, and is a frequent presenter at conferences.