The pains and gains of microservices: A Systematic grey literature review

• Published in: The Journal of systems and software Vol. 146; pp. 215 - 232
• Main Authors: Soldani, Jacopo, Tamburri, Damian Andrew, Van Den Heuvel, Willem-Jan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.12.2018
• Subjects: Microservices; Microservices design; Microservices development; Microservices operation; Systematic grey literature review; Systematic literature review; Microservices operation; Microservices design; Microservices development; Systematic grey literature review; Microservices; Systematic literature review
• ISSN: 0164-1212; 1873-1228
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2018.09.082

•We first present our approach to systematically analyse grey literature on microservices.•We identify, analyse and compare the technical/operational pains of microservices.•We identify, analyse and compare the technical/operational gains of microservices.•We conclude by discussing the research directions stemming out from our analysis. The design, development, and operation of microservices are picking up more and more momentum in the IT industry. At the same time, academic work on the topic is at an early stage, and still on the way to distilling the actual “Pains & Gains” of microservices as an architectural style. Having witnessed this gap, we set forth to systematically analyze the industrial grey literature on microservices, to identify the technical/operational pains and gains of the microservice-based architectural style. We conclude by discussing research directions stemming out from our analysis.