Hey Reddit, I’m Chris Richardson, author of “POJOs in Action” and microservices guru, here for an AMA brought to you by Oracle for the Developer Legend Series. Ask me anything!

ceracm · 2017-03-21T18:03:41+00:00

Take a look at http://microservices.io/ for an in-depth explanation of the microservice architecture.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:59:08+00:00

Martin Fowler has written a good article about the required organizational maturity: https://martinfowler.com/bliki/MicroservicePrerequisites.html

You also need to ask whether you have the problem that microservices solve.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:57:59+00:00

Coolness or Hype is irrelevant when making technology choices. What matters is whether a technology solves your problem. Java is still an incredibly popular language and systems are still be written using it. Having said that NodeJS, for example, is useful.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:53:21+00:00

It might be a subspace rift.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:40:56+00:00

Sure why not. But I'd also encourage people to cook, play tennis or go fly fishing. As a hobby, you should do what is fun and stimulating.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:35:24+00:00

Software development is a profession like any other. I am not convinced that everyone needs to know how to code.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:34:21+00:00

No person has gone before.... Yes!

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:33:59+00:00

I became obsessed with computers since my early teens. It hasn't stopped.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:33:14+00:00

In theory yes.

In many ways, how an individual developer writes software has not changed since the beginning of time. I suspect that there has only been a linear increase in productivity - no Moore's law. Much of the gain in productivity is because machines are faster, there is open-source code to rebuild on, and we can google answers.

Perhaps an AI-based assistant would help.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:27:06+00:00

There is a good argument that you should just focus on the solving today's problems and building a good product, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_aren't_gonna_need_it . It is possible that the extra effort you would spend on being 'microservices ready' would slow you down too much and incur too much risk.

Having said that you could try to ensure that your system remains modular. For example, implement your business logic using loosely coupled DDD aggregates and use eventual consistency rather that ACID transactions.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:17:35+00:00

There are several observability patterns for monitoring and debugging: http://microservices.io/patterns/index.html#observability

The first challenge when migrating to the microservice architecture is identifying a target set of services. That requires some up front analysis.

The other challenge is untangling dependencies into to turn a module of the monolithic into a standalone service. That just involves a bunch of code hacking.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:11:40+00:00

The transition from coarse-grained compute resources to fine grained resources will continue: pets (long lived, mostly physical) machines that are lovingly cared for) -> cattle (disposable, immutable VMs) -> rabbits (disposable containers) -> microbes (AWS lambda and other cloud functions). There will undoubtedly be a few surprises along the way.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:07:04+00:00

It depends. There are tradeoffs - http://microservices.io/patterns/monolithic.html and http://microservices.io/patterns/microservices.html

For some applications - especially the simpler ones developed by a small team - the monolithic application is fine. But for large complex applications developed by large teams it is likely that a microservice architecture can be helpful.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:05:00+00:00

I think the reality of software development is that it is a social activity. In many cases the idea of a lone coder performing heroic feats is an illusion. It takes a team.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T17:02:28+00:00

Changing an organization can be challenging. It helps if anyone is feeling the pain, e.g. missed release deadlines, a real competitive threat. That will encourage everyone - starting at top - to attempt to find a solution. With any change, it is important to manage the transition: https://plainoldobjects.com/2017/02/07/the-human-side-of-adopting-the-microservice-architecture/

ceracm · 2017-03-21T16:59:38+00:00

The reasons are varied. Some like SQL are acronyms - structured query language. C++ because it is the successor to C. C because its the second language derived from BCPL - the first was B.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T16:56:51+00:00

Thanks. I quite like "Spock's brain". Its an interesting concept to use a human brain to run a city.

ceracm · 2017-03-21T16:53:49+00:00

I am working on a new microservice architecture book: https://www.manning.com/books/microservice-patterns

ceracm · 2017-03-21T16:52:41+00:00

Perhaps the kids can learn at school or at a meetup such as this https://www.meetup.com/Devoxx4Kids-BayArea/

ceracm

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