Atlassian’s Journey From Monolith to Microservices (DeveloperWeek Global 2020)

"Join Atlassian's journey from monolithic to microservices architecture, exploring the challenges, benefits, and best practices that enabled a scalable, reliable, and highly available platform."

Key takeaways
  • Atlassian’s Journey from Monolith to Microservices: Atlassian’s platform transformation from a monolithic architecture to microservices-based architecture, with a focus on improving velocity, reliability, and scalability.
  • Why Microservices: Atlassian chose microservices to support the company’s vision of being a cloud-first, scalable, and highly available platform.
  • Common Platform: Building a common platform was key to Atlassian’s success, allowing for shared knowledge and best practices across teams and products.
  • Benefits: The benefits of microservices include improved velocity, reliability, and scalability, as well as increased autonomy and ownership among teams.
  • Roadblocks: Atlassian faced several roadblocks during the transformation, including managing expectations, decomposing monoliths, and ensuring SOX compliance.
  • Lessons Learned: The company learned valuable lessons along the way, including the importance of “show, don’t tell”, transparency, and communication with stakeholders.
  • Success Factors: Success factors included having a clear definition of “done”, establishing a culture of ownership and autonomy, and investing in DevOps practices.
  • Customer Support: Atlassian prioritized customer support throughout the transformation, ensuring minimal disruption to users and maintaining high levels of service.
  • Technology Stacks: The company leveraged various technology stacks, including Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS, to support its microservices-based architecture.
  • People Change: The transformation required significant changes to Atlassian’s organizational structure, including the creation of new teams and roles.
  • Delete the Middle: The company’s mantra “Delete the Middle” emphasized the importance of eliminating unnecessary complexity and focus on developer velocity.
  • Awards and Recognition: Atlassian’s transformation was recognized with several industry awards and accolades, including the DevOps Award for Most Innovative Adoption of DevOps Practices.