Incidents During Microservice Decomposition: A Case Study

TL;DR

This case study analyzes 107 incidents in a microservices transition, providing insights into causes and suggesting that initial monolithic modularization can improve system resilience.

Contribution

It offers a detailed analysis of incidents during microservice decomposition and proposes a practical approach to reduce failures by starting with monolithic modularization.

Findings

Starting with monolithic modularization may reduce incidents.

Insights into common causes of failures during microservice transition.

Lessons learned to improve microservice decomposition processes.

Abstract

Software errors and incidents are inevitable in web based applications. Scalability challenges, increasing demand, and ongoing code changes can contribute to such failures. As software architectures evolve rapidly, understanding how and why incidents occur is crucial for enhancing system reliability. In this study, we introduce Carbon Health's software stack, share our microservices journey, and analyze 107 incidents. Based on these incidents, we share insights and lessons learned on microservice decomposition. Finally, we suggest that starting with monolithic modularization as an initial step toward microservice decomposition may help reduce incidents and contribute to building more resilient software.