Page 45 - Federal Computer Week, January/February 2019

Simply put, Netflix broke up monolithic bespoke software applications by isolating independent modules of common business routines and then positioned those routines in the cloud, where they consume zero resources until called by core applications.
Once invoked, those microservices — thanks to the magic of serverless cloud technology — can expand and contract instantly like a balloon, spinning up only for the short dura- tion of their execution. Once the execution is complete, they collapse back to an almost-zero footprint.
The special sauce to this architectural approach is that the routines can be called by multiple independent appli- cations — meaning that once they have
been created (or procured), an entire
universe of applications can take advan-
tage of the provisioned routines. Because
microservices are separate from the core
application, they can be managed and
owned independently — and obsessively
enhanced and improved, greatly reducing
the complexity of updating functionality
in a monolithic application with all its interdependencies.
To abruptly shift the metaphor, it’s like the introduction of loaner shoes at a bowling alley, but in this case, every bowling alley in the world has access to the same shoes at almost no cost.
Infinitely elastic microservices
In practice, many common routines are
perfectly suitable for microservice deploy-
ment. At the Department of Housing and
Urban Development, where we are cur-
rently developing a proof of concept, it’s
possible to create a series of microser-
vices for the purpose of processing mortgage insurance appli- cations. As just one example, it’s possible to build a microser- vice that exclusively provides applicant income verification. When the core business software reaches the point in the process where the application needs income verification, it calls the appropriate microservice through an application programming interface. The microservice performs its func- tion, returns a result and then shuts itself down. The cost of any single transaction could be fractions of pennies.
Now let’s think of this in the context of a shared service. That same income verification microservice can likely provide identical functionality for myriad core applications across the government — the Agriculture Department’s extremely similar farm loan guarantee process, for example. Imagine a repository of basic microservices routines such as credit card transactions, “do not fly” list look-ups, “do not pay” lists,
address verification and credit checks.
Simple microservices could ultimately be followed by more
complex but also commonly needed routines and managed at a governmentwide level — or, at the very least, at the agency level.
If executed properly, the government could build a shared service of reusable microservices for consumption enterprise- wide that would be managed in a single repository. Suddenly, the government would find itself with a highly economical portfolio of extremely inexpensive functionality that could be shared far and wide.
To state it another way, agencies would be free to develop the unique core of their business systems,
The brilliance
of Netflix’s massively efficient IT is that the company has cracked the code on the very thing the government seeks: a marriage of shared services and cloud technology.
but the shared-services component would be the specific calls to common functions maintained in a well-managed repository.
Bifurcating development in this way is an architecture decision, but as demonstrated by Netflix, it greatly reduces costs in many categories. It reduces the cost and com- plexity of maintaining monolithic bespoke applications, and it reduces the cost of IT consumption because the microservices are infinitely elastic and use resources only at extreme levels of efficiency.
Perhaps most importantly, it creates the opportunity for a large number of systems anywhere in the government to share spe- cific common routines on an on-demand basis. A relatively small staff could man- age a large portfolio of common applica- tion routines that could be reusable across the entire government.
Netflix’s pioneering approach to these new architectures and cloud services is no longer on the cutting edge. The technology
is available to everyone, including the federal government. Frankly, these new approaches are the digital equivalent of Henry Ford’s optimization of the assembly line for manufac- turing. In cases where it’s appropriate for the government to build its own solutions, creating a microservices and shared-services consumption model can help reduce costs and accelerate the delivery of new solutions.
It’s time for the government to get on board with this highly efficient, cost-reducing approach to IT modernization.n
Michael Garland and Gaurav Pal are principal consul- tants supporting the General Services Administration’s IT Modernization Center of Excellence focused on cloud adoption. The content of this article is their personal perspective only and does not reflect an official govern- ment position.
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