Microservices for the Wrong Reasons
We adopted microservices because Netflix did it. We're not Netflix.
Why we chose microservices:
- ✅ "It's the modern way"
- ✅ Conference talks said so
- ✅ Looks good on resumes
- ❌ Actual scaling needs
- ❌ Team size requirements
- ❌ Domain complexity analysis
What we got:
- 3 developers managing 50 services
- Distributed debugging nightmares
- Network calls where function calls worked fine
- 50 CI/CD pipelines to maintain
- Distributed transactions we can't reason about
The honest assessment:
- Traffic: 100 requests/minute (monolith handles this)
- Team: 3 people (can't own 50 services)
- Domain: Simple CRUD (no independent scaling needs)
What we should have done:
Started with a well-structured monolith. Split when (and if) we needed to.
Lesson: Microservices solve organizational problems. If you don't have those problems, you're creating new ones.