Sumit Kapoor
With surging eCommerce sales and rising customer expectations, the world of commerce is changing fast. To keep up, organizations need content and commerce systems that can grow, shift and adapt quickly.
Microservices is the architecture of the future.
It’s no surprise then that many organizations are adopting microservices architecture as a way to leave expensive and inflexible legacy software behind and move towards more efficient and easier to maintain modular systems. Microservices architecture has many features to recommend it, from greater flexibility, scalability and integrity to increased speed, transparency and visibility. But while a microservices framework has many benefits, it also comes with its own set of challenges.
Integration plays a key role in the success of microservices architecture.
Many legacy systems are monolithic, meaning all components are interconnected and interdependent. In contrast, microservices architecture creates multiple smaller services that each run as a separate process. However, the lack of integration of these independent services is one of the key reasons microservices architecture projects fail. Without it, none of the systems can talk to each other. And when systems can’t talk to each other, things fall apart quickly—leading to lost customers and missed opportunities. While integration is crucial to realizing the benefits of distributed systems, it’s often downplayed and overlooked by vendors who focus on making sure the services they implement work, but not that all of the services work together. This means the true importance of microservice integrations is often recognized too late.
Choosing the right integration partner.
There are a lot of considerations that go into transitioning to microservices architecture, but ensuring the project’s success starts with selecting an integration partner. Here are five ways to make sure you choose the right one.
1. Integration is their first thought, not an afterthought.
As we already mentioned, integration is an afterthought for many service implementers—a function that has value but isn’t an immediate concern. And that’s a risky mindset. Successful microservices projects require a comprehensive understanding of data integration across all systems. And since a migration to microservices isn’t an instantaneous process, successful projects also require a plan. To fully leverage the value of microservices, you need a partner who focuses on integrations from day one and can ensure your integrations work both in the future state and the near term. The right partner will recommend a plan that includes simplifying existing integrations and introducing tools like IBM Cloud Pak for Integration (if they are not already implemented). If they don’t, integration won’t be a priority.
2. They have content and commerce expertise.
Choosing a partner who understands how eCommerce, PIMs, content management and DAMs work—and how information flows through them—is almost as important as having a partner who understands your overall integration architecture.
That’s because many performance, stability and scale issues stem from a fundamental lack of knowledge about the best way to access information in these systems.
Knowledge of APIs and data access methods is also essential to maintaining data integrity. We often see clients leverage large system integrators with broad capabilities that access data directly from the database layer instead of APIs, creating a tangled web of batch processes and performance issues.
How do you know if your partner is an expert? Ask for examples of how they’ve implemented and integrated these platforms with other clients. If they’ve suggested one-off workarounds for complex integrations, then you know they probably aren’t.
3. They understand compliance, regulations and security policies (and that they change).
Increased reliance on digital systems has intensified the need to protect all sorts of information that wasn’t previously accessible. As industries become more aware of these new risks, compliance becomes an ever-changing set of requirements.
Since integrations are at the heart of many compliance challenges, your integration partner should be familiar with industry compliance requirements—including requirements currently in place and those on the horizon.
Your partner should also have knowledge of maps, data sources, uses, linkages and flows to ensure information like personal identifying (PI) data can be easily traced for your compliance team.
The right partner will ask questions about existing policies and ones that are already in the works.
4. They know your business as well as the systems that support it.
Selecting an integration partner who knows how to transform data between systems is important, but choosing an integration partner who also understands the complexity of your entire business ecosystem is critical.
Having a full picture of the sales channels (external marketplaces, catalog syndication, retail sites, in-store POS) as well as your supply chain (suppliers, vendors, affiliates) is necessary to understanding existing and anticipating future integration requirements.
The right partner will ask questions about your business model and your existing business relationships.
5. They play well with others.
Anyone who has worked on complex integrations knows that integration can’t happen without collaboration between the teams supporting each of your systems.
Respect and knowledge of schedules, clarity of roles and responsibilities and clear plans for synchronization issues and failures all help establish a collaborative environment. And the right integration partner will take them all into account to ensure the project’s success.
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The integration of microservices is critical in creating a seamless experience for both your internal teams and your customers. Properly integrated systems help realize the promise of microservices, while incorrectly integrated (or unintegrated) systems can result in painful data and integrity issues. Not to mention lost customers and opportunities.
Working with an integration partner who has these qualities is the difference between a successful microservices project and failure.