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TECHFEED Cloud Microservices
t doesn’t sound much. A microservice is the minimum embodiment of technology that provides a performant
and valuable service. Yet this software design architecture is instrumental to the spectacular success of Spotify, Netflix, Expedia, Uber, Airbnb and essentially every other digital business that has gained commercial prominence in the past decade. It’s an approach to application development and management that is also seen as crucial to the transition of old school media – pay TV operators and commercial broadcasters – to the brave new world of the cloud. The key word is ‘approach’ and not all broadcast or vendor engineering teams are getting it right. “Microservices serve a fundamental role in most aspects of the software landscape for media and entertainment,” says Brick Eksten, CTO, playout & networking solutions at Imagine Communications. “Whether it is a core network function, a piece of a website, or a utility that runs in the background, there is an opportunity to improve that role or function through the use of microservices.” WHAT EXACTLY IS A MICROSERVICE? The term has been used to describe the practice of breaking up an application into a series of smaller, more specialised parts, each of which communicate with one another across common interfaces such as APIs and REST interfaces like HTTP. “These smaller components can scale independently of each other and the wider stack,” says Kristan Bullett, co-MD at cloud product and services provider, Piksel. “They are modular, so can be tested, replaced, upgraded and swapped out easily. It is also much easier to break down workloads using microservices and spread them across the cloud, efficiently matching resources more closely to business needs.” A familiar example is the landing screen you face when accessing a new service on a website which asks you to sign in with Facebook or Google or email. Netflix have built much of its operation
MOVING AWAY FROM MONOLITHS Microservices enable small changes to be made in a more efficient, controlled and non-invasive fashion and at a reduced cost
from microservices, dozens of which interoperate to provide the slick experience users of its platform receive. “The reason microservices are so great is because typical software approaches rely on bulk installations, which must be upgraded all at once (like operating system updates to phones or laptops),” says Alex Snell, associate solution architect at system designer and consultant BCi Digital. “Microservices can be changed as the provider sees fit, so a user sees different things between visits to a platform, or even during a single session.” In the broadcast facility, the same approach using bulk software implementations still exists. To add new functionality to a system, often a months- long provider acquisition and consultation period is followed by further months of installation, testing and finally launch. “As speed to deployment increases, broadcasters want upgrades to be faster,” says Snell. “If a system is built from microservices, implementation of upgrades and changes can be realised in days, or even hours.” Microservices contrast with the older broadcast model which is typically
characterised as monolithic. Essentially inflexible, cost inefficient and no longer fit to compete with digital-first rivals, any organisation stuck with this model won’t travel far. A monolithic architecture is where the functions needed to run operations are so tightly interwoven that a change to one part of the software will have immediate consequences for the rest. “Microservices are really about making small changes in a controlled and non- invasive fashion,” explains Bullett. “By taking a microservices approach you have a much smaller slice of functionality which you can test and introduce with great confidence into the wider service. Where cloud utilises compute, storage and networking resources more efficiently, microservices- in-the-cloud makes even better use of them, pulling down operating costs.” While a number of workflow functions including transcoding, graphics insertion and scheduling are harnessing microservices, it is the macro benefits of the approach that are more important. These include the ability to scale cloud resources, avoiding the need to scale an entire platform that the applications are part of, the ability to pick best of breed applications and scale easily with them, the isolation of software development so developers can work on part of a service without interfering with the rest of the stack, and the agility to update, release and – if necessary – pull back a software release without impacting the applications around it. “Broadly, it’s about lowering the cost and the risk of change while increasing flexibility,” says Bullett.
SOFTWARE DESIGNED TO SIT ON DEDICATED HARDWARE SYSTEMSWILL BE CONSTRAINED INWHAT IT CAN ACHIEVE IN THE CLOUD
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