Certain businesses believe that the sole requirement for upgrading legacy applications involves deploying them to the cloud or transferring them to a container. However, the reality is seldom as straightforward. The processes of cloud migration and other modernization approaches do not inherently result in enhanced application performance, which is ultimately the critical factor for any business.
While the objective of modernization is to transition an application from a legacy deployment model to a more agile one, this shift does not automatically guarantee improved performance. The fact remains that clients and end users are not interested in whether your applications are hosted in the cloud or utilize containers; their primary concern lies in the efficiency of the applications.
If an application grapples with underlying performance issues such as memory leaks or network bottlenecks, these issues persist even after migrating to a modern environment. It is true that in certain instances, modern environments can contribute to better performance, particularly when contemporary hosting strategies eliminate components like hypervisors, providing applications with more available resources. However, this is not universally applicable; at times, the additional layers in modern hosting stacks, such as orchestrators and service meshes, may lead to inferior performance compared to conventional environments.
To ensure optimal performance, developers must grasp the intricacies of four prevalent application modernization strategies: cloud migration, containerization, adoption of microservices, and automation.
Cloud migration
Shifting an application to the cloud typically results in an immediate performance enhancement due to the availability of hosting resources on demand, virtually without constraints. Consequently, an application plagued by a memory leak may exhibit improved speed in the cloud, where memory resources are limitless. From the standpoint of end users and metrics like average response time, the application may seem to deliver superior performance in the cloud.
However, this perception is misleading. Using the memory leak scenario as an illustration, the issue persists and is not automatically resolved in the cloud environment. Moreover, the additional memory resources consumed by the application in the cloud incur extra costs. In essence, cloud migration does not address the underlying performance problem; instead, it merely applies a costly temporary fix, resulting in accumulating technical debt over time.
If your approach to application modernization revolves around cloud migration, it is crucial not to conflate metrics such as response time with genuine performance. Rather than focusing solely on metrics, pay careful attention to cloud costs, as they predominantly mirror performance optimization efforts. If the expenses associated with cloud resources surpass what you would spend to maintain the application on-premises, it serves as an indication that the application harbors fundamental performance issues.
Containerization
Containers function by deploying an application within an isolated and lightweight virtual environment, devoid of the overhead associated with traditional virtual machines (VMs) running on hypervisors. This setup ensures that more resources are available for the application’s use.
In practical terms, a poorly performing application might experience a slight speed improvement when running inside a container compared to a VM. This is because the container host server has additional resources that can be allocated to the application. However, the fundamental inefficiency in the application’s design remains, resulting in the wastage of valuable system resources.
Furthermore, containers introduce potential performance challenges. Inadequately configured resource limits for containers can lead to a shortage of essential resources, hampering the efficient operation of containerized apps. Assigning a container to a node lacking sufficient resources for supporting it is another pitfall. Failure to address these risks may result in the application performing worse within a container than it did when running directly on a server. Careful management of these factors is essential to ensure optimal performance in a containerized environment.
Microservices
When you restructure a monolithic application into microservices, aiming for a loosely coupled architecture, there are potential benefits such as improved scalability, resilience against security threats, and smoother updates. However, the transition of a legacy app to a microservices architecture introduces certain performance challenges that warrant careful consideration.
In contrast to monolithic applications, microservices typically depend on network communication through APIs to interact with each other. Performance risks arise when network issues or poorly designed APIs come into play. It is crucial to thoughtfully determine the hosting environment for each microservice and optimize their communication pathways to enhance overall performance.
Moreover, the complexity inherent in managing microservices-based applications often necessitates the integration of additional tools, such as service meshes for overseeing microservices communications and orchestrators for managing microservices across server clusters, into the hosting stack. These supplementary tools consume resources, potentially leading to suboptimal app performance due to reduced availability for workloads.
Furthermore, the administration of these tools adds to the skill and effort requirements for staff. The intricacies and ownership challenges associated with microservices can impede continuous delivery (CD) processes and innovation, prompting questions about the business value of the chosen modernization strategy. It becomes essential to address these complexities to ensure a successful and effective transition to a microservices architecture.
Automation
Merely deploying applications in modern environments does not guarantee significant performance improvements unless accompanied by automated management processes. Without automation, applications often struggle to efficiently utilize resources at an optimal level, particularly in terms of scaling resource allocations.
For instance, when deploying containerized applications on a Kubernetes cluster, the overall resource requirements of workloads tend to vary. Relying on manual procedures to adjust resource allocations for Pods may result in inadequate responsiveness to the changing resource needs of applications, hindering optimal performance.
Implementing autoscaling for Pods ensures that applications automatically receive the necessary resources for optimal performance. This not only enhances application performance but also prevents unnecessary expenditure by avoiding the allocation of excess resources to Pods during periods of reduced demand. Automation plays a crucial role in ensuring that applications dynamically adapt to changing resource requirements, optimizing their performance in modern environments.
Final Thoughts
While modern technologies offer significant potential for enhancing workload performance, they are not a cure-all. When misapplied, solutions such as microservices and containers may, in fact, negatively impact overall performance and increase the complexity of environment management.
These instances shed light on why an enterprise might opt for a monolithic application rather than embracing microservices. If the organization lacks the resources to effectively manage a microservices architecture or if the additional complexities introduced by modern environments result in subpar application performance, there is no discredit in adhering to monoliths and on-premises environments.
