The end of 2016 is closing in fast. Time to think about how technology changed our developer life in 2016 and make new plans for 2017.
If you didn't hear about containers (Docker), orchestration, microservices, serverless, deep learning, information of everything, no-ops, programmable infrastructure and even throw in some quantum computing to the mix you probably lived under a rock.
Don't worry if you didn't have time to pick up the pace yet and joining the cool kids on new unknown territories. Most of the technology is still in the early adopter stages and the mature levels are not reached yet.
Getting everybody on board the container bandwagon.
But the wise man and woman of the IT world are agreed on one thing! Start learning containers (Docker) now. Its the key ingredient if you want to adopt microservices and start breaking down monoliths.
2017 is about education and getting everybody on board the container bandwagon. We leave the hype behind in 2016.
The microservices style of architecture highlights rising abstractions in the developer world because of
containerization and the emphasis on low coupling, offering a high level of operational isolation.
Developers can think of a container as a self-contained process and the container platform as the common deployment target, using the microservices architecture as the common style. Decoupling the architecture allows the same for teams, cutting down on coordination cost among silos.
quote Thoughworks technology radar November 2016
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater
To be honest. If you are still happy with your awesome app and still using a monolith architecture. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Start adopting containers and see how you can achieve more scalability, resource utilisation and bring cost down with monolith containerization.
How to kickstart the bandwagon and be a Container Hero
Time to make an adopting/transformation strategy for 2017 to start embracing the change containers can bring to your team and organisation.
Before you can even start talking about microservices, schedulers, orchestration you and your team should understand the why and the how of containers. A good start is this introduction.
Become a container Frodo
Think about the process of a journey. Learning technology is like a Hero's Journey.
The Hero’s Journey is a pattern of narrative identified by the American scholar Joseph Campbell that appears in drama, storytelling, myth, religious ritual, and psychological development. It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the group, tribe, or civilisation.
If we translate the Hero's Journey into our Hero's Container Journey you get.
The Hero’s Container Journey is a pattern that appears in IT transformations. It describes the typical adventure of the archetype known as The Container Hero, the person who goes out and achieves great deeds on behalf of the team to bring life and happiness with container technology.
You need a least one in your team to pick up this role and leave the ordinary IT world, take the challenges in the very special container world and make new allies, enemies and bring back the exilir to get the containers right.
On this journey, you need a mentor to guide through the battlefields of tech, marketing and sales. Don't get distracted. Listen to your mentor!
Start learning Docker before you can fly into production land
Start learning Docker before you can fly into production land. Don't start on top of the mountain and try to squeeze your microservices into production before you now how to create the RIGHT minimal Docker image and know what it can bring to the table.
Like Frodo in Lord of the Rings, he didn't take a short-cut to thrown the ring into the hellish fires of mount Doom. You shouldn't either. The journey is one with ups and down but the elixir is sweet and brings you innovation, speed and happy devs and ops.
2017 is around the corner and full of exciting stuff. Container adapting, especially in production, will go light speed. We finally see a global image container format and working towards a stable container ecosystem to focus on what really counts.
Start delivering performant services in a robust environment we all can enjoy in 2017.