A systematic literature review: risk analysis in migration from monolithic to microservice architecture

Abstract

Since 2011, the term "microservices" began to be articulated as an evolution of service-oriented architecture, standing out for its focus on small, independent services aligned with business objectives. With the rise of technologies such as containers and orchestration tools, microservices were established as a standard for scalable and modern architectures. In addition, the emergence of specialized frameworks, patterns and tools simplified their adoption, consolidating them as an essential practice in software development. Migrating microservices entails various risks that can affect the stability, costs and operation of the system. The greatest technical complexity is manifested in the design, implementation and testing due to the distributed nature of microservices, coupled with communication problems between services such as latency and network errors. Risk of cascading failures due to the interdependence between services can propagate errors, impacting system availability, especially if fault tolerance mechanisms are not implemented. This study will identify the risks in migrating to microservices using the Systematic Literature Review method. The databases used in the selection of articles that match the criteria include: IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Google Scholar and between 2015 and 2024. The results of this study were 33 articles selected according to the criteria and reviewed. The result of this study allowed to identify 21 risks which were grouped; microservices, migration, architecture and others, whose quantities represent 19%, 29%, 14% and 38% respectively and including mitigation actions.