Cloud Native Transformation

Chapter 6. Tools for Understanding and Using Cloud Native Patterns

OK, so what just happened during WealthGrid’s second attempt at a cloud native transformation? Why is WealthGrid having such a difficult time building a new cloud native system, even when they are putting tons of money and people into the project?

The short answer: cloud native is new, complex, and requires a very different way of thinking. Alas, this is apparent only once you have already moved a significant distance down the migration.

These eventual but inevitable difficulties take everyone by surprise because the first stages of a cloud native transformation are genuinely (and deceptively) easy. Engineers go to the conferences and they see Google Cloud Platform guru Kelsey Hightower or someone like that doing magic on the stage and producing results very quickly and efficiently. Then they go try it themselves by setting up one container, or maybe a simple application with a few containers running Java, and it goes great. It’s actually pretty simple and can be done in just a few hours and they feel like they’ve got this, no problem-o. This is the point where most engineers go to management and say, “We have to adopt this technology! We love it—it’s excellent and so easy we can do it without any big investment.” So they get the approval, and move happily forward, expecting things to continue on being just that easy and successful—while they continue working the same way they’ve always done.

This kind of bottom-up ...