5 key steps to migrate your monolith commerce platform to a microservice architecture

For several years, microservices have gained popularity, allowing companies to scale their ecommerce platforms and achieve their business goals using a best-of-breed application. Leading global companies such as Audi and Quantas have leveraged the power of microservices to improve scalability, handle high levels of traffic to their commerce sites, and provide a better user experience across all touchpoints.

Unlike single-code base monoliths, microservices can be broken down into smaller, more modular services, allowing ecommerce providers to leverage microservices for better scaling, higher availability, and faster time to market, resulting in higher revenue and conversion rates. But first, let’s explore why a unified monolith can still be the preferred architectural framework of choice.

Why a unified monolithic system still reigns 

While microservices architecture has become increasingly popular in recent years, that is not to say that the monolith is obsolete. Monoliths still offer several benefits that make them suitable for simple applications with limited requirements. Some advantages of monoliths include: easier to develop, simple deployment, less complexity and fewer points of failure.

If you’re unsure whether a monolith or microservice architecture is best for your business, our team of experts can help assess your specific needs and goals and guide you in selecting the most suitable approach for your application.

Choosing the right strategy to migrate your monolith to microservices

For a successful migration, there are two strategies you can choose when migrating toward a new architecture.

• The strangler approach: Involves keeping the existing monolithic application running while gradually adding new microservices. This allows teams to test new components without causing disruption to the existing architecture.
• The rip and replace approach: More extreme than the strangler, it requires replacing the entire monolith with a new microservices architecture. While riskier, this strategy can also provide faster results.

 Ultimately, deciding which approach to choose will depend on your business needs, risk tolerance, and overall migration timeline.

Align microservices with your business objectives

To ensure a successful migration for your ecommerce platform, aligning your microservices with your business objectives is imperative. This will allow you to choose services that can bring tangible value and help you achieve your business goals. Factors to consider are identifying specific business processes you want to improve, such as the user experience and performance.

Setting clear objectives will keep you focused while selecting the microservices pertinent to your business.

5 key steps to ensure a successful microservice migration

Migrating your ecommerce platform to a new architecture can be daunting, but you can implement a more scalable and flexible application solution by following a few best practices and key steps. 

Step 1: Decompose the monolith and define service boundaries

When decomposing a monolithic ecommerce platform, defining service boundaries is crucial. Doing so allows you to break down the application into smaller, independent services responsible for specific business capabilities. This helps to eliminate overlap between services and ensure that each service can be managed and scaled independently to create a more efficient and reliable application.

Step 2: Re-architect the infrastructure

Once you have defined the service boundaries, the next step is to re-architect the infrastructure to support microservices. While there are numerous strategies you can implement, adopting a cloud-based infrastructure will allow you to take advantage of the benefits of the cloud, such as scalability, reliability, and cost-efficiency.

Step 3: Develop and test the microservices

Each service should be developed and tested independently to ensure it meets the requirements and integrates seamlessly with other services. Rigorous development and testing will allow you to identify and fix issues early, reducing the risk of future errors.

Step 4: Integrate and deploy microservices

Once microservices have been developed and tested, they need to be integrated into the overall application and deployed to production. This complex process requires collaboration between different teams to deploy without disrupting the overall application, ensuring the architecture is stable and reliable.

Step 5: Monitor and maintain microservices

Ensuring optimal performance will require ongoing monitoring and testing to detect and rectify any rising issues. Regular maintenance and updates are also essential to ensure the microservices are up-to-date and secure.

Bonus: Speak to a trusted partner!

To successfully migrate from a monolithic ecommerce platform to microservices, it is imperative to collaborate with a team of skilled professionals. O2 Web can assist in designing strategies, developing road maps, and providing guidance on best practices and potential obstacles to avoid. We offer services customized to your needs to ensure a smooth and efficient transition from beginning to end.

While migrating from a monolith to a microservice architecture can be challenging, the benefits are significant. By adopting a more modular approach, you can improve the scalability and reliability of your ecommerce platform, while also making it easier to develop and maintain new features.

Get in touch with us and see how we help you migrate your ecommerce platform to microservice architecture and set you up for long-term success.