Microservices: Where Did It All Go Wrong - Understanding Common Misunderstandings

In this conference talk from GOTO Copenhagen 2024, Ian Cooper, a Polyglot Coding Architect at Just Eat, examines where microservices implementations have gone wrong over the past decade. Explore the fundamental misunderstandings around microservices architecture since James Lewis and Martin Fowler's 2013 paper, including misconceptions about what "micro" means, how to achieve independent deployability, and how to avoid creating distributed monoliths. Learn about the specific problems microservices were designed to solve, why many implementations have failed to deliver promised benefits, and what has led to the current backlash calling for a "return to the monolith." Discover practical advice for properly implementing microservices architecture and understand which problems monoliths cannot solve that make microservices a necessary choice in certain scenarios. The presentation includes fundamentals and definitions, problem analysis, and actionable advice for architects and developers working with distributed systems.