Migrating to Microservices Architecture with Time Machine®

Submitted by Kathy on Mon, 2024-04-15 22:45

SANTA CLARA, CA. Monday, April 15, 2023 at 12:00 PM EDT

Topic:

Microservices architecture, often referred to as microservices, is an architectural approach to application development. The essence of this approach is dividing large, monolithic applications into smaller lightweight, self-contained units that can function and communicate independently.

It is the most used approach to developing cloud applications today.

Traditional monolithic architecture, where all software components of an application are contained together, has several limitations, like lack of flexibility and reliability, and is difficult to scale.

The microservices approach addresses those limitations, since applications are deconstructed and separated into smaller units (microservices), that the client can access via APIs. Usually, each microservice handles a type of functionality within an application. For example, one could take care of logins, one can create the UI, while a third one could communicate with the database that would store the user data.

Using microservices approach in application development offers many benefits.

  • Thanks to the autonomous nature of microservices, different teams of developers can work in parallel on different components/functionalities of the application. That’s why it’s much easier to scale independently from the rest of the application, and make changes when needed.
  • Isolating a potential error-ridden microservice is easy since the whole application is divided into standalone, fully functional software units. Then the development teams can work on one microservice to fix errors and redeploy it without redeploying the entire application.
  • Microservices architectures are more resilient, because if one microservice fails, the rest of the application could continue working, although part of its function might be unavailable.
  • With microservices approach, developers have the ability to choose a technology stack that is best suited for each particular microservice and its functions, instead of having to go with one standardized tech stack for all of the application’s functions.
  • These autonomous services require relatively less infrastructure than monolithic applications, because you’re able to choose the precise scalability for selected components, according to their exact requirements.

Today, most of the cloud-native applications are built as microservices by leveraging containers, where containers host the individual microservices that constitute an application

There are several reasons why containers are commonly used with microservices:

  • Containers usually start very quickly, so it's easier to make full use of the agility of microservices.
  • Containers provide isolation for each containerized microservice, so there’s less risk that a security vulnerability can be exploited.
  • It is much simpler for microservices to be located and communicate with each other, as well to be orchestrated when they all run in containers that are managed in the same cluster.

When migrating from monolithic applications to microservices, whether by redeveloping everything from scratch or transitioning from the existing code, the important part of the migration process is making sure that your date and time sensitive business logic is behaving correctly.

Using Time Machine for Containers you can easily and efficiently perform any kind of time shift testing and confirm that your time-sensitive application logic is functioning properly in any of your testing scenarios.

Besides time shift testing your microservices, with Time Machine Sync Server you can also synchronize time travelling of your containerized targets with legacy applications, which can be especially important if you’re in a transitioning period, where a part of your newly created environments still co-exists both inside containers and in the old traditional architecture.

Furthermore, all of the testing can be fully automated using the built-in API that TM Sync Server provides. Regardless of the programing language used and automation frameworks you choose, integrating Time Machine API calls in your testing automation will be a breeze.

If you only want to test a single part of your application, you can also have as much flexibility as to choose which of your microservices will be affected by virtual time, and which will remain on system time, or even have multiple virtual times affecting different microservices.

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About Time Machine:

Software Virtual Clocks for Time Travel Testing. Simulate past and future dates effortlessly with Time Machine®, enabling comprehensive testing of your date- and time-sensitive applications. Ideal for validating critical business processes like quarter-end and year-end processing, billing cycles, regulatory compliance (including Year 2038), and policy lifecycles during integration, upgrades, virtualization, cloud migration, and containerization. Eliminate the risks and downtime associated with system clock resets in complex environments like Active Directory and Kerberos.

About Solution-Soft:

The Leader in Virtual Clock and Time Travel Testing Solutions

Since 1997, Solution-Soft has been at the forefront of virtual clock software and time travel testing solutions, empowering organizations in the ever-evolving digital world. Our flagship product, Time Machine, has revolutionized application testing, enabling thousands of companies, including 47 of the Fortune 100 US companies, to reduce costs and accelerate project delivery by an average of 3 – 10 times across traditional systems and containerized applications.

The Time Machine Product Suite extends these capabilities, optimizing cloud migration, test automation, Agile/DevOps, and containerization testing. Our latest innovation, Time Machine for Containers, supports standalone Docker containers and large-scale Kubernetes and OpenShift clusters (including a 16,000+ CPU core, 1,300+ namespace deployments).

Trusted by over 2,000 customers worldwide across diverse industries (including 3M, AMEX, BBC, Boeing, and more) and partnered with industry leaders like Accenture, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat, Solution-Soft, founded in 1993 and headquartered in Santa Clara, CA, provides cutting-edge solutions for your time-sensitive testing needs. Learn more at www.solution-soft.com or call +1.408.346.1400.

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