This document discusses an organization's use of fine-grained services that are more similar to "milli-services" than microservices. It outlines some advantages of reducing service granularity, such as improved separation of concerns and faster evolution. However, it also notes disadvantages like increased complexity. The organization has found that its approach improves agility but requires automation and discipline. Key enablers include agreed conventions, automation, tooling, and ensuring teams are responsible for building and running their own services.

1. From Duplo to Lego
23 Apr 2014

7. Do
we
use
micro-­‐services?
No.
Not
as
commonly
defined.
Will
we
use
micro-­‐services?
Perhaps.
So
what
do
we
use?
Fine
grained
services.
More
Milli
than
Micro.

8. Reducing
the
granularity
has
advantages
SeparaAon
of
concerns
becomes
more
explicit
Services
become
easier
to
understand
Faster
evoluAon
and
turn
around
Availability
and
scale
(if
you
do
it
right)
Enables
applicaAon
of
the
right
paradigm

9. Reducing
the
granularity
has
dis-­‐advantages
More
services
• More
things
to
go
wrong
• More
things
to
deploy
into
producAon
• How
to
find
them?
• More
logs
to
look
at
in
more
places
Can
result
in
complex
service
dependency
chains
Requires
more
plumbing
and
infrastructure

10. Our
experience
• Has
improved
maneuverability.
• Reduced
Ame
to
get
features
out.
• Improves
morale,
teams
have
more
influence.
• Requires
discipline.

11. Making
it
possible
• Agreed
ConvenAons.
• AutomaAon.
• Tooling.

12. Must
haves
• You
build
it,
you
run
it.
• Trust
that
the
builders
are
doing
it
right.
• Look
for
gradual
incremental
improvement.

13. Must
haves
• Deployment
pipelines
to
get
services
into
producAon.
• Log
aggregaAon
to
make
it
easy
to
look
for
problems.
• ConAnuous
TesAng
to
make
sure
all
your
features
are
working
all
of
the
Ame.
• Invest
in
wriAng
the
tooling
that
enables
people
to
self-­‐serve

14. Must
haves

16. Thank
you
@glen_ford
We
are
hiring…