Microservices Architecture: Have Engineering Organizations Found Success?
Have software engineering and IT leaders found a way to leverage a microservices architecture for organizational success? Read on to find out.
One minute insights:
Microservices architecture is in use among most respondent organizations
Many of those who haven’t yet adopted microservices plan to do so within the next six months
Almost half of leaders’ organizations that are using them manage fewer than 100 microservices
Microservices improved deployment speed for adopters, and many feel that their organizations’ integration e orts have been successful
Most leaders feel they have enough resources for microservices, but many organizations still plan to increase allocation over the next three months
Microservices architecture is in use among most respondent organizations
Almost three-quarters (74%) of respondent organizations are currently using microservices architecture. 23% of leaders’ organizations aren’t yet, but plan to.
Is your organization currently using microservices architecture?
n = 300 Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
Of those respondents whose organizations plan to adopt microservices architecture (n = 69), 39% say their organization intends to do so within the next six months.
When does your organization plan to adopt microservices architecture?
Question shown only to respondents who answered “Not yet, but we plan to” to “Is your organization currently using microservices architecture?”
n = 69
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
At organizations that have already adopted microservices (n = 223), 29% began using them one to three years ago. 22% started using microservices within the past 12 months.
When did your organization start using microservices architecture?
Question shown only to respondents who answered “Yes” to “Is your organization currently using microservices architecture?”
n = 300
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
Question: What are your final thoughts on microservices architecture?
[Microservices] helped us a lot in streamlining the architectural issues in the most organized and fastest way possible. It leads to increased operational e iciency of business and its people.
Developing and testing microservices can be more involved compared to a monolithic architecture. Ensuring proper service integration, managing dependencies and comprehensive testing across services are important aspects that require additional e ort.
Many organizations manage fewer than 100 microservices — and are satisfied with that amount
Almost half (49%) of respondent organizations using microservices (n = 223) currently manage fewer than 100. 23% currently manage between 100 and 300. Only 3% manage over 1,000.
How many microservices does your organization currently manage?
n = 223
Question shown only to respondents who answered “Yes” to “Is your organization currently using microservices architecture?”
45% of respondents at organizations using microservices (n = 223) say they currently manage a suboptimal but satisfactory number of microservices. 21% say they have an optimal number, and 17% say they have too few.
Thinking about your organization’s needs and the resources available for your microservices architecture, how do you feel about the number of microservices currently being managed?
Question: What are your final thoughts on microservices architecture?
Defining the boundaries and granularity of services is a critical design decision in microservices architecture. Services that are too fine-grained can lead to excessive communication overhead, while services that are too coarse-grained can limit the benefits of scalability and independence.
We went the route of having many many small, concise microservices which we are now struggling to support with the turnover throughout the years. We have some we likely don’t need but don’t have a clear way to know that, and it’s hard to get buy in to allocate time to evaluate what we have.
Improved deployment speed is a key benefit, and many feel that their organizations have successfully integrated microservices with existing tech
As a result of using microservices architecture, respondents who were able to identify improvements (n = 145) pointed to better deployment speed and/or cadence (63%), agility (56%) and application scalability (51%) at their organizations.
Thinking about the positive impact of microservices architecture at your organization, where have you seen the most significant improvements? Select up to three.
Application resiliency 26% | Cybersecurity 18% | Sta scalability 19% | Regulatory compliance 14% | Organizational resiliency 14% | Area(s) of improvement not listed 4% | Other 0%
Question shown only to respondents who answered “Yes” to “Is your organization currently using microservices architecture?” Respondents who answered “Don’t know,” “Can not say,” “Too early to say” or “I haven’t seen any improvements” are not shown in this data.
n = 145
88% of respondents currently using microservices (n = 223) say the integration of their organization’s microservices architecture with their existing tech stack has been at least moderately successful.
15% rate their organizations’ microservices management as not very or not at all successful.
How would you rate the success of the following aspects of your organization’s microservices architecture?
Question shown only to respondents who answered “Yes” to “Is your organization currently using microservices architecture?”
n = 223
Question: What are your final thoughts on microservices architecture?
The speed of creating releases is a big bonus; you can try and fail much quicker so you can make changes where needed
It is suitable for some — but not all — technology challenges. That is a lesson we have learned the hard way.
Most leaders feel they have enough resources for microservices, but many plan to increase allocation over the next three months
61% of respondents’ whose organizations are using microservices (n = 223) feel they have enough resources for microservices architecture, while 22% say they do not.
Do you feel that you have adequate resources for microservices architecture?
Question shown only to respondents who answered “Yes” to “Is your organization currently using microservices architecture?”
n = 223
One-quarter (25%) of respondents (n = 223) say their organizations plan to significantly increase the resources allocated to microservices in the next three months, while 39% plan a moderate or slight increase. Less than 3% plan a decrease in resource allocation.
In the next three months, is your organization planning to increase or decrease resources allocated to microservices architecture at your organization?
Question: What are your final thoughts on microservices architecture?
Microservices architecture certainly has potential to increase the agility and maintainability of the software we develop. It suits the cloud deployment and scales well with the cloud resources.
Microservice architecture is not a silver bullet. Understanding when and how to use it is very crucial for successful adoption.
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Respondent Breakdown
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
Respondents: 300 IT and software engineering leaders