The Power of Polyglot Architecture: A Guide for Modern Organisations
As an engineer, I have often come across organisations that are struggling to keep up with the ever-evolving demands of the business. The rapid pace of technological advancement and the increasing complexity of business requirements can often lead to a situation where a single technology stack or programming language becomes insufficient. In such scenarios, it is crucial to adopt a polyglot architecture to stay ahead of the curve and meet the changing needs of the business.
Why Polyglot Architecture is important for modern organisations
A polyglot architecture empowers engineers to make decisions about which technology stack and programming language to use. This is particularly important in today’s fast-paced business environment where technology and business demands are constantly changing. By allowing engineers to use the best possible technology for different features in development, a polyglot architecture can lead to increased agility, faster time to market, and better outcomes for the business. Moreover, organizations that adopt a polyglot architecture can stay ahead of the curve and remain competitive in an ever-evolving technological landscape.
Advantages of Polyglot Architecture
Business Need
A polyglot architecture is a good fit for both enterprises and startups as it helps to address the diverse needs of the business. With the increasing complexity of computing technology, it is imperative that organisations be able to provide solutions that can meet these demands. A polyglot architecture enables organisations to play in almost every space including big data, IoT, AI, cloud computing, and data analysis.
Engineer Creativity
A polyglot architecture provides a set of guidelines and standards for microservice development but also empowers engineers to make decisions about which language to use. This leads to increased creativity, ownership, and innovation among engineers, which can result in better solutions for the business.
Time to Market
With a polyglot architecture, teams can work with the technology stack they are most comfortable with, leading to increased agility and faster time to market.
Talent Pool
A polyglot architecture enables organisations to tap into a wider pool of talent, including .Net, C++, Scala, GO, Python, Node.js, and Java programmers.
Challenges with Polyglot Architecture
While polyglot architecture has many advantages, it also presents some challenges, including:
Complexity
A polyglot architecture requires a high degree of coordination and consensus between teams, and it can be difficult to manage the complexity of multiple programming languages and technology stacks.
Contract Standardisation
It can also be challenging to standardise contracts between microservices, especially when different teams are working with different languages.
How to successfully implement Polyglot Architecture
To successfully implement a polyglot architecture, it is crucial to have a deep understanding of common libraries and to ensure that the code is loosely coupled. Additionally, the following steps can help to ensure the successful implementation of a polyglot architecture:
Creating a framework or bootstrap code
By creating a framework or bootstrap code for the technology being used, engineers can focus on the impact to the business intent and not worry about implementing patterns or logging events.
Automation
Automation can play a crucial role in a polyglot architecture, including automating different layers of the service, such as the database layer, application deployment, and testing. Tools such as liquibase, flyway, mongeez, Docker, JUnit, TestNG, RestAssured, Clover, and Splunk, Datadog, and Newrelic can be used to automate various aspects of a polyglot architecture.
Governance and standardisation
It is also important to have governance practices in place to ensure standardisation across microservices.
Deep Understanding of Common Library
A deep understanding of common libraries is necessary to handle complexity and contract standardisation challenges.
Loosely Coupled Code
By creating a loosely coupled codebase, organisations can handle complexity and contract standardisation challenges.
Monitoring
Implementing monitoring solutions such as Splunk, Datadog, or Newrelic, and setting up alerts for issues, health checks, and governance and standardisation can ensure a successful implementation.
Conclusion
The polyglot architecture enables organisations to stay ahead of the curve by providing solutions with diverse technology stacks. With the advantages of increased engineer creativity, faster time to market, and access to a larger talent pool, polyglot architecture is an important aspect of modern organisations. While there are challenges with complexity and contract standardisation, implementing a loosely coupled codebase, creating a framework or bootstrap code, automating different layers of the service, and implementing monitoring solutions can lead to a successful implementation.
