Using Microservices for Digital Decoupling Architecture

Microservices enhance the digital journey of an organisation in so many ways. They optimise costs, make software agile and scalable, and are of immense help when designing digital decoupling architecture for IT migration.

- Dr Magesh Kasthuri and Dr Anand Nayyar

Digital adoption over the cloud by an enterprise can entail digital migration (which comprises re-hosting, re-configuration or re-platforming applications) or digital transformation (which is either refactoring or re-architecting native cloud solutions, or replacing native cloud components). But there is another way, called digital decoupling architecture, that organisations can also use for digitalisation.

Features of digital decoupling architecture

Decoupling data and application architecture: A strategy is adopted to decouple data architecture into reference data and transactional data. Reference databases remain on premises in legacy IT systems, and applications with transactional data are moved to the cloud.

DevTest adoption in the cloud: On an average, development and test (DevTest) environment usage is 40%-60% every year. Moving these environments to the cloud optimises DevTest infrastructure and monitoring costs, because you pay for only what you use.

Data lake adoption: Data lakes in the cloud are used for reconciliation, regulatory reports, and batch job processing (e.g., using AWS Glue Job).

Agile DevOps: This helps to automate the toolchain process.

These features of digital decoupling enable easier and quicker digital adoption as compared to costly solutions used in the digital transformation path.

Anatomy of microservices architecture