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Agile methodology is a form of software development methodology where the entire focus is on providing client satisfaction through the process of continuous delivery. There was a time when the waterfall methodology was the golden standard for software development, but this process had its cons and when agile was introduced, it became widely appreciated over time.
Agile processes were based on sustainable development, where stakeholders, developers, and customers were equally benefited, and were able to work at a constant pace. The frequent collaboration with stakeholders, closely working team members, and the possibility to embrace change late in the project has made Agile popular among teams. Going through the Agile Manifesto would give you an idea of the set of guidelines to work with the methodology.
The concept of modern Agile is also becoming popular, and it is far broader than the Agile methodology. It covers several aspects of business, and not just product development.
The two main methodologies are: Waterfall and Agile. Choosing the right development methodology is tricky because both are usable and mature.
The waterfall methodology is a traditional, linear approach to software development, and follows these processes in their own distinctive stages:
Each of these stages is compartmentalized in their own right, and customer approval is mandatory before going to the next stage.
It could be single-tier, 2-tier or n-tier. In a 2-tier architecture, you have the client-server architecture and the communication line between the client and server would be open. The presentation layer would be in the client side and the database layer would be on the server side.
In an n-tier application program, the various parts of the application are spread among two or three computers, but they would be networked. N-tier can also be called the 3-tier application, and would be distributed in the following manner, usually:
(1) User Interface Programming in the user’s computer,
(2) Business logic in a centralized computer and
(3) Required data in a database managing computer.
The best approach to start with microservices is to know the right application which would be suitable for it, and then you can capitalize on an early success. Ensure that the application supports a well-understood business domain, because then it is easy to switch to microservices. It would be ideal to go for an application that’s already funded for development/modernization.
Hire experts in serverless and microservices solution design. Next, you can build and deploy the application or product using highly productive, serverless design solution like Azure Functions, AWS, etc. To ensure you deliver high value to the customer, employ compatible development process (like DevOps and CI/CD).
By moving your project to the modern approach, while leveraging the benefits of microservice architecture on serverless computing environment and hiring CI/CD experts, your organization can see tremendous growth and early results.
In the end, your organization will be rewarded with quick delivery of recognizable value, low operational cost, shorter development cycles, consistent deployment of working code and high degree of reusability.
Moving to microservices and serverless can help you scale your application, especially during peak hours and holiday seasons. Following this trend would definitely help you gain the upper hand among your competitors.
Microservice architecture is a distinctive form of service-oriented architecture style where the process of application development is broken down into different smaller services rather than making it large and complex. This would be a collection of loosely coupled services focusing on Continuous Deployment while implementing business capabilities.
The microservices architectural pattern addresses several limitations and problems developers and administration faced with the monolithic architectural pattern. As enterprises turn to Agile, and focus on DevOps, microservices would be greatly helpful in developing testable software in a weekly manner.
Tech giants like Amazon, PayPal, Twitter, eBay and Netflix have moved from monolithic architecture to microservices architecture and we at Cabot Solutions have done the same. With its capability to build small suites of services, you can build scalable and flexible applications, in different languages, and using different storage techniques.
Microservices architecture has proved itself to show many advantages and benefits to its users. Here are some of them:
Conquer global competition - The APIs bring order and agility in the applications enabling rapid development in a globally competitive world. If you are looking for an architecture that lets you reach out to the maximum number of people, here you go.
Reduce business complexity - Customers need apps that are better, cheaper and faster, and to implement these, the businesses have to employ methods that reduce complexity. For example, Paypal’s “make a payment” button is an entirely new application that’s maintained and improved by a team exclusively for it. Amazon’s user reviews and “add to cart” are different, discrete apps. Different teams manage it, and separately too. This is how they break down the complex parts, so they can be maintained and updated regularly and individually.
Scalable and secure - As explained above, the various parts of the app are isolated, so security monitoring becomes easier. And even if a security hitch occurs, it will not affect the rest of the application. This is helpful for scalability too because you can scale any part of the app as per requirement, and is possible with third-party services.
Reduced costs - As you can break down the applications, there is a cost savings of about 20-50%. Implementing agile methodology calls for a great deal of customer involvement, and this can add to the time and cost of implementation. Microservices, through the breaking down of services, makes it possible to accommodate agile practices too, without overtly affecting the costs.
Maintain legacy - The highly module design of microservices makes it possible to maintain legacy applications. If you are looking for achieving close to 100% availability during peak hours, with no glitches in page views, this is the solution.
Time to market - Business agility helps in quicker time to market, especially when agility is involved. Faster application deployment and portability adds to the agility to scale to demand.
Small batches of work - Naturally, when the application can be cut down to small, manageable pieces by developer teams managing their area of expertise, development moves faster, with increased product quality.
Quicker deployment - Microservices speeds up deployment because all the processes can be completed in shorter times. This in turn, cuts your IT spend.
Serverless, is short for Serverless computing, and the newest buzzword in town. Also known as Function as a service (FaaS), this technology eases the job of the developer by hosting the applications through a third-party service. The developer no longer has to manage the server software and hardware.
In other words, the developer just has to focus on building and running the applications, without worrying about the infrastructure part. Provisioning, scaling and maintaining the servers are also handled by the third party, leaving the developer to focus his energies on building great applications. Cloud services like Amazon DynamoDB, Lambda and API Gateway can relieve them off the different operational complexities involved in running and managing applications.
Here is a quick glimpse of some of the major services offered through serverless computing through AWS:
Microsoft’s Azure Functions are also heavily invested in serverless, the aim being, to simplify and accelerate the app development process. There is a fully managed computing platform that does the provisioning of the servers, and maintaining them. This lets you run the code on demand according to the variety of events happening. Here are some of the most popular Azure services.
You can choose whichever services you need, depending on the requirement. For example, if you need the option for remote debugging, then Azure would be a better choice.
The Microservice architecture follows the philosophy of “Do one thing and do it well” and it benefits the entire organization, ranging from the developer and technical team to the CTO and of course, the customer:
Microservices are more suitable for huge, enterprise-level applications.
For relatively smaller, medium sized applications, you can go for serverless applications. This proves that the Modern Approach is more adaptive to the Agile environment.
Agile methodology with the help of cloud services can definitely be your answer to faster product development, low operational costs and a high-quality product. By leveraging the benefits of microservices, it is possible to break the large-scale cyclic modernization pattern faced by organizations. Microservices deployed on serverless computing environments can increase the reliability of the product, increasing its scalability and cut away all unnecessary costs.
Eventually, there is innovation, quicker delivery to client and value realization in the development chain, followed by increased efficiency in work as you have smaller teams.
Would you like to leverage cloud services for faster product development? We can assist you!
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We look forward to hearing from you!
YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM US SOON!
