Making elephants gallop

Adopting the microservices architecture can make digital transitions smoother even for behemoths.

- DIVY SHRIVASTAVA, NINELEAPS TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

Companies, today, are aware of the benefits of adopting digital transformation for their businesses. And a lot has been written on how brands like Netflix, Amazon, and Uber have leveraged microservices-based architecture to bring newer products to customers at lightning speed. It has been relatively easier for new technology companies to adopt it. However, large, traditional businesses with a lot of legacy systems, rules, and regulations too can benefit greatly from the microservices architecture.

From retail giants like Target and Walmart to the BFSI behemoth Lloyds Banking Group, some well-known brands have successfully joined the digital bandwagon and are reaping the benefits of going digital. Lloyds Banking Group, for instance, has seen a 24 per cent year-on-year increase in technology spend in their efforts to digitise the group, and as a result, has added 15.7 million digitally active customers. Among the other pathbreaking initiatives, it has rolled out the Voice ID technology to make banking quicker and easier, while also ensuring robust data protection. Since its launch, over 770,000 registered customers have used this feature, completing close to 4 million verifications.

Similarly, ever since their digital journey commenced, Target’s digital performance is delivering more than $5 billion in annual sales, and driving additional growth across the business. In the year 2018 alone, their comparable digital sales grew by 36 per cent.

Despite these notable successes, conventional businesses with their legacy systems tend to face multiple roadblocks during the transition phase. One of the ways in which legacy systems can escape, or at the very least mitigate, any disruption while adopting digital systems is through the use of microservices.

What are microservices?