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Kubernetes Development Environments Convert Monoliths to Microservices Without Blowing Up the App

Kubernetes Development Environment Allows Developers To Convert Monoliths to Microservices Kubernetes Development Environment Allows Developers To Convert Monoliths to Microservices

The migration to microservices allows cloud applications to scale and be more resilient than ever before.

The challenge of developing cloud apps with many microservices is that deploying and managing the application can be difficult. Why? Because each microservice has its dependencies, it can be difficult to track them all. Another challenge is - because each microservice has its scaling requirements - it can be difficult to scale the application as a whole.

Another hurdle of managing many microservices is that it can be difficult to monitor the application. Again, this is because each microservice has monitoring requirements, and it can be challenging to keep eyes on the entire application.

But the real struggle is that extracting code from a monolith to convert it into a microservice is as delicate and dangerous as defusing a bomb. One false move, and the application explodes. Making the task more difficult is that clumsy local dev toolchains often complicate the task of carefully unraveling complex cloud applications.

Discover how shifting from a local to a cloud development environment can accelerate developer velocity and drive innovation by 50%!

Unravel a Monolith Without Blowing It Up

Fortunately, a cloud development environment allows developers to carefully remove pieces of monolith code and test it safely to discover unexpected dependencies and configurations; if the code breaks, no problem. Cloud development environments remove that fear of having a MacGruber "kaboom moment."

A Kubernetes cloud development environment reduces many of the challenges of developing cloud applications consisting of a multitude of microservices. Engineers can confidently discover the "hows" and "whys" a microservice failed in a protected sandbox without fear of blowing up your Monolith.

According to Burr Sutter, Red Hat Developer Evangelist, a cloud development environment overcomes the limitations of ill-fitting local dev environments, which can make developing complex cloud apps with multiple microservices and complicated dependencies difficult.

"The added complexity of microservices (or serverless functions), running afoul of the fallacies of distributed computing, means that it is often impossible for a developer to run the microservice they wish to code and debug with while also having access to all its dependencies (for example, databases, queues, SSO, N other custom microservices)," says Sutter.  "Mocking all these dependencies can be time-consuming and difficult to maintain. Let's face it: microservices generally are a lot harder to craft than monolithic applications."

Building microservices requires an understanding of the fallacies of distributed computing. With cloud development, developers need to know infrastructure and workflows with microservices, such as more disciplined CI/CD pipelines, overall automation, on-demand and elastic infrastructure, and DevOps cultural transformation. That’s a big job. So it’s not a surprise that CTOs and DevOp managers often fear the overwhelming time commitment needed from developers to convert monolith to microservice. Turning a mountain into molehills is a huge project that often takes many months of work; therefore, engineering leaders are often weary of the operational cost of moving their dev teams away from product work to complete a project that is difficult to know where to start or how to scope.

But with cloud-based Kubernetes dev environments, teams can more easily scope the project into nicely sized pieces that make the overall task less daunting and more predictable. In general, a pre-configured cloud development environment, which can spin up in seconds with integrated security policies,  solves this laundry list of microservice-related challenges.

At a high level, cloud dev environments are designed to support complex apps by mirroring a production environment to test your code before merging. As a result, even apps with 50+ microservices and tons of data get a realistic replica of their production environment quickly and with minimal effort. Additionally, a cloud dev works with your existing Helm charts, docker-compose, or Kubernetes manifests right out of the box to easily turn Monolithic mountains into manageable microservice molehills.

With Okteto, developers working to defuse monoliths no longer feel like they're playing Janga, worrying that the extraction of one microservice could make the whole application collapse. "Whenever playing around with Google Cloud or AWS, I'm afraid I'll do something wrong and get a thousand-dollar monthly bill,” says Mohammad-Ali A'râbi, lead developer, AppTec GmbH. “With Okteto, I can experiment and, if it doesn't work, I delete and try again."

Discover how shifting from a local to a cloud development environment can accelerate developer velocity and drive innovation by 50%!

John PapageorgeMarketing / Dance InstructorView all posts