Monolith to Microservice: Shared Data Design Pattern

Murat Karakurt
folksdev
Published in
4 min readApr 14, 2024

Every developer has a thought about how can we create a perfect microservice system. However, most concepts and techniques are different in real world. You can not apply everything you think about.

Generally, microservice architectrure is painful due to ultimate goal of achieving high standarts. But you don’t have to be perfect. In this article, we will talk about monoliths and migration into the microservices. How can we migrate monolith services to microservice ecosystem? etc.

Transforming a monolith system into microservices can be very complex, depending on the sizing of the domain. You have to go ahead step by step. There are enormous ways to transform monoliths into microservices but today we will talk about one of them.

When thinking about the transition from monoliths to microservices, it’s essential to recognize that this shift isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Each application and organization comes with its unique set of challenges, dependencies, and requirements, necessitating a tailored approach.

Breaking a Monolith App Into Microservices

Before we deep down talk about the migration process, the key step is analyzing the existing monolithic application with monitoring tools. This involves understanding its architecture, identifying tightly coupled components, assessing potential areas for decomposition, and understanding its needs. By gaining a comprehensive understanding of the monolith’s structure and functionality, we can better strategize the migration plan.

One common approach to breaking down a monolith involves identifying bounded contexts within the application domain. Bounded contexts indicates distinct areas of functionality within the system, each with its well-defined boundaries and responsibilities. By seperating these boundaries, we can begin the process of decoupling and encapsulating individual services.

However, it’s important to exercise caution when defining bounded contexts, as overly various boundaries can lead to a multiplation of microservices, introducing complexity and management overhead.

Once bounded contexts are identified, the next step is to prioritize them based on factors such as business value, technical feasibility, and interdependencies. Starting with smaller, less critical components can help mitigate risks and validate the migration approach before tackling larger, more complex parts of the monolith.

During the migration process, it’s essential to maintain a whole view of the system and its interactions. Communication between microservices becomes crucial, the implementation of robust APIs and messaging mechanisms. Additionally, adopting containerization and orchestration technologies like Docker and Kubernetes can facilitate deployment and scalability of microservices.

Furthermore, it’s vital to establish comprehensive monitoring, logging, and observability mechanisms to ensure the health and performance of microservices. With the distributed nature of microservices, identifying and troubleshooting issues becomes inherently more challenging, making proactive monitoring indispensable.

In conclusion, while the transition from monoliths to microservices can be seems terrible, it’s a journey worth undertaking for organizations seeking greater agility, scalability, and resilience in their systems. By approaching the migration process methodically, prioritizing decomposition efforts, and embracing best practices in microservices design and implementation, organizations can successfully navigate this transformational journey.

Shared Data Design Pattern

This pattern is very controversial pattern when we talk about microservices. However, it is a temporary pattern for legacy projects that you can implement in a transitioning state. This patterns aims to use the same physical structure for data storage. Shared data design pattern can be used when you have doubt about something like communication around microservices or structure of data.

Example System Architecture

However, sharing data across microservices introduces complexities and challenges, including maintaining data consistency, ensuring data integrity, and managing access control. To address these challenges, developers often employ various shared data design patterns to their specific use cases and requirements.

Don’t forget it is a only temporary pattern when you think about breaking monolith to microservice step by step. It is not best practice. It is an only one of them viewpoints.

Transitioning to a microservices architecture brings with it many complex challenges, and managing shared data is a significant issue among them. This article addresses the difficulties encountered in the process of transforming monolithic structures into microservices, with a particular focus on shared data design patterns, which are strategies used to ensure that data is managed securely, consistently, and efficiently.

In the transition to a microservices architecture, managing shared data plays a critical role. To successfully navigate this process, it is important to select and implement the appropriate design patterns. Choosing and implementing the right patterns will ensure success in the transition to a microservices architecture. This approach will help organizations achieve greater flexibility, scalability, and resilience.

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