The New Stack Podcast

Setting Microservices Up for Success: Real-World Advice

Aug 1, 2024

Sarah Wells, a seasoned tech consultant with over 20 years of experience, shares her insights on microservices success. She details her time at the Financial Times, where they scaled from 12 to over 20,000 software releases by embracing automation and team autonomy. Wells emphasizes the need for effective communication and flexible architectural roles, advocating for 'engineering enablement' over rigid platform teams. Discover how organizational structures impact microservices adoption and the importance of fostering collaboration in tech teams.

39:00

Creator website

Episode guests

Sarah Wells

AI Summary

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

The Financial Times improved its software release speed dramatically by consolidating IT organizations and embracing a continuous delivery model.

Engineering enablement teams significantly reduced cognitive load on developers, allowing them to focus more on feature delivery and innovation.

Deep dives

Organizational Transformation at the Financial Times

The Financial Times underwent significant organizational changes to enhance the pace of technological development. Initially, the company operated with two separate technology organizations, which were eventually consolidated to streamline processes. Recognizing the need for faster feature releases, the leadership shifted their focus towards enabling rapid experimentation and development. This was achieved by reducing the time required to provision servers from six months to a mere fifteen minutes, marking a pivotal step towards implementing continuous delivery.

Intro

2min

Navigating Dual Transformation in Tech

9min

Fostering Team Empathy and Collaboration through Rotation

3min

Modernizing Deployment in Fintech

17min

The Role of Engineering Enablement in Modern Organizations

4min

Navigating Deployment Strategies in Microservices

5min

Maintaining and ensuring the success of a microservice-based system can be challenging. Sarah Wells, a seasoned tech consultant with over 20 years of experience, offers valuable insights in her book "Enabling Microservices Success" and a discussion on The New Stack Makers podcast. Drawing from her tenure at the Financial Times (FT), Wells illustrates how transitioning to microservices and adopting DevOps and SRE practices enabled FT to accelerate software releases from 12 annually to over 20,000.

This transformation required merging IT organizations, investing in automation, and fostering team autonomy. Wells emphasizes that successful microservices adoption depends not only on developer expertise but also on organizational structures. She highlights the importance of continuous delivery and proactive communication, especially during critical periods like major news events. Additionally, she discusses the evolving roles of senior engineers and the need for flexibility in defining architectural responsibilities. Wells advocates for "engineering enablement" over "platform teams" to better support effective service management and evolution.

Learn more from The New Stack about enabling successful outcomes of microservices:

What Is Microservices Architecture?

4 Strategies for Migrating Monolithic Apps to Microservices

Continuous Improvement Metrics for Scaling Engineering Teams

Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game. https://thenewstack.io/newsletter/