Updating the application architecture you’ve had in place for the last 20 years probably feels like a massive investment of time and capital you can’t spare right now. But take a minute to think about the cost of staying stuck in the past.
The rapid changes you need to make to keep pace with the market end up being not so rapid. They impact the whole application, and failures cascade, making for unhappy users. And your strategic goals slip ever further into the horizon.
Modern application architecture is an investment you can’t afford to ignore.
The future of modern application architecture
Modernizing application architecture means pairing modern approaches to design and execution. Let's break it down:
- Microservices. The design element is behind the scenes but should be front of mind. You’ll only avoid the pitfalls of outdated architecture if you take the time to reimagine your application design carefully. This is about reducing dependencies. And it's about de-coupling components to scale in-demand elements cost-effectively. And ensure low-demand modules aren’t over-serviced.
- DevSecOps. This is all about the execution. Here you’re looking to build in automations, like containerizations that instantly let you spin up module deployments. It also means baking in security considerations as you go.
The benefits of pairing DevSecOps and microservices
Optimized development costs
Lower costs might often motivate, but the word lower implies a comparative goal. Lower than what? And, when seeking the lowest price, what gets sacrificed? Instead, it’s better to aim for optimized costs.
This means getting the most for your investment and a return that furthers your strategic vision. When you invest in modern architecture and streamlining processes, you invest in automation and speed while maintaining quality. And you reap the rewards in cost-effective scaling and faster, iterative deployments.
Streamlined deployment pipelines
One of the main drivers of digital transformation is to support productivity and agility.
The DevSecOps discipline, coupled with microservices, delivers. It enables frequent feedback that results in small, iterative changes to the code. This is continuous integration and deployment in its truest sense. But more than that, it also provides excellent opportunities for automation.
Integrating automated testing means even faster bug and error detection. And automated scanning (helping put the Sec in DevSecOps) exposes vulnerabilities so you can address risks and threats faster.
Then there’s automated scripting and patching. One deploys a container from a newly created image, while the other automatically spins up a container when one dies.
Yes, all this automation speeds things up. But it also makes your processes more reliable, helping you to better manage and mitigate risks.
Easier to roll out updates
A single unified application is challenging to update quickly. This impacts the length of your development cycle, which impacts time-to-market. Winners in the industry are those able to break this cycle.
Because microservice architecture breaks the application into bitesize chunks, it interrupts this issue. The updates to one service don’t mean downtime for the rest. Development teams can continue their work independently and dependency-free.
Combine microservice architecture with the DevSecOps execution, and you’re making continuous updates to security as you develop new features.
Thorough security testing
The modular architecture of microservices naturally means more APIs than with a monolithic application. And that means more attack surfaces. Added to that is the sheer number of images that will get pushed into your registry - all of which may have hidden threats. Together this means microservices on their own can risk more harm than good.
Executing your microservices design via DevSecOps mitigates this risk. From triggered scans for every new image to ML scouring your logs for unusual behavior in real time, it builds security into every aspect of development. So, you're managing attack surfaces from inception - not detection.
A better end-product
Updates get released faster, so there are fewer security issues to slow down your mission-critical applications. And you’re better set up to support a modernized workforce.
DevSecOps combined with properly designed microservices also means failures don’t cascade. It means you can focus on continual improvement for each service and feature. And that these improvements can happen quickly, prioritized by demand.
Greater than the sum of its parts
Modern application architecture offers flexibility and scalability. You get better predictability and speed without any compromise to quality. You also side-step costly vendor lock-in since you are modularizing to such an extent that you’re not reliant on any specific platform.
Building resilience and agility in your business must sound pretty tempting by this point. But this kind of change will be challenging. To see success, you need to engage in thorough planning and embed the right culture into your organization.
If you want help getting started, talk to Success Software today.