There is often the sense that going serverless means going microservices and event-driven architectures, too. That's NOT TRUE! They are related but ultimately separate design choices. So much of software engineering is about making smart choices. Often, when I see teams struggle to adopt serverless, it's because they try to take on too many new ideas at once. A marathon, not a sprintI have seen many ambitious teams that want to modernise their application and go from on-premise monoliths to:
On top of that, migrating to DynamoDB is often thrown into the mix. That is A LOT of moving parts, and it requires many different experiences and expertise to navigate successfully. Expertise that most of these teams do not have. Learning to do all this while you're expected to deliver tangible results under a looming deadline is very risky. It's like trying to learn to juggle flaming swords and ride a unicycle at the same time... while you're on a tightrope! A more prudent approach is to take a slow and steady path towards your goal. Limit the scope of change Limit the number of big (and risky!) architectural changes in one go. One is best; two is plenty, and three is probably too much. If you're switching compute (e.g. EC2 -> Lambda) and database (e.g. MySQL -> DynamoDB) paradigms, then don't add microservices or event-drivenness to the mix. De-risk along the way Look for opportunities to de-risk, such as running your existing web application as a Lambdalith. Tools like Lambda Web Adapter, Serverless Express and Chalice all support this pattern. That way, you can enjoy the benefits of Lambda (e.g. scalability) without refactoring your entire application and adopting a new set of software development practices. Start small If your team is new to AWS and the serviceful mindset (i.e. prefer using a managed service over custom code), then start by introducing a low-risk service to your stack. Changing a database requires a lot of work. Moving to Lambda impacts CI/CD and development workflow. So maybe you can start by introducing S3 for blob storage. Or perhaps replace a custom-built scheduling service with EventBridge Scheduler. It's not about being "serverless"Instead of thinking about "adopting serverless", it's better to focus on reaping the benefits of serverless with the least effort:
Serverless-First, not Serverless-OnlyWe say "serverless-first" because we want people to leverage serverless technologies where it makes sense. Your business changes over time, and as your context changes, you should adapt accordingly. As I discussed in my retrospective of the PrimeVideo article, your architecture should evolve with your business needs. Being serverless is not the point. It's not a religion. For me, the best thing about serverless technologies is that they help me deliver customer value faster. Like that time when I helped a client launch a new social network in weeks. When it comes to adopting serverless technologies in your organization, you too, should focus on finding value. If a move is risky, then find ways to de-risk and take smaller steps instead. |
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Last week, we looked at 6 ways to version event schemas [1] and found the best solution is to avoid breaking changes and minimise the need for versioning. But how exactly do you do that? How can you prevent accidental breaking changes from creeping in? You can detect and stop breaking changes: At runtime, when the events are ingested; During development, when schema changes are made; Or a combination of both! Here are three approaches you should consider. 1. Consumer-Driven Contracts In...
Synchronous API integrations create temporal coupling [1] between two services based on their respective availability. This is a tighter form of coupling and often necessitates techniques such as retries, exponential delay and fallbacks to compensate. Event-driven architectures, on the other hand, encourage loose coupling. But we are still bound by lessor forms of coupling such as schema coupling. And here lies a question that many students and clients have asked me: “How do I version my...
ICYMI, Serverless Inc. recently announced the Serverless Container Framework. It allows you to switch the compute platform between Lambda and Fargate with a one-liner config change. This is a game-changer for many organizations! It'd hopefully nullify many of the "lock-in" worries about Lambda, too. As your system grows, if Lambda gets expensive, you can easily switch to Fargate without changing your application code. To be clear, this is something you can already do yourself. It's not a...