Lego, Microservices and The Value of a Lasting Thing

First: Hi. I’m Daniel and recent member of SogetiLabs.

As my bio says I’ve been in love with building things since Lego. Allow me to, briefly, elaborate on that topic since it will carry some merit to the content of this post.

I believe there are two kinds of people that build with Lego in this world: those that stay true to a Lego manual and those who don’t. I am in the latter category and my lovely wife belongs in the former. It’s been the source of many, many late-night discussions.

My wife, as she is a very organized person with a sense of duty to boot, would build per specification as stated by the manual. She would do it meticulously and without deviation. And, once done, she would proudly place her Lego creation on the shelf. There it would sit, for others to admire, as a testament to her achievement.

I, on the other hand, might build the first iteration per the manual, but once done, the disassembly of that which had just been constructed would follow. The disassembled blocks of Lego joined those that had come before into the great box of blocks. This addition would expand the horizon of possibilities and allow for new, otherwise impossible, creations to be brought into reality.

And I believe this, to some extent, is also true for the need and rise of Microservice architecture.

What’s relevant, as I’ve discussed with my wife, is the question: what’s the value of a lasting thing?

In the context of the digital savanna, shared by the digital predator and digital prey, a lasting thing can be perilous. What makes the digital predator thrive and prosper are forces demanding change. It’s in the nature of the digital predator to seize on the opportunities where the digital prey is unable to adapt.

The system built to endure may become the monolithic behemoth that threatens survival. A business to suffer such a creature will find it difficult to try for something different — can’t try for something different to have an impact, should the opportunity arise.

Microservice architecture embraces the demand for change. It’s an architecture that does away with the need for something lasting. The need for something to endure. It’s an architecture that delivers on the promise of SOA, but also pragmatic, armed with the insight that there is no intrinsic value of a lasting thing — at least not on the digital savanna. An insight that is key in a market, demanding change, that will never move slower than it does today.

So, what kind of Lego builder are you? Do you stay true to the Empire of manuals or do you rebel?