Story how Pipedrive evolved from monolith based architecture to microservices using agile and devops mindset + with little help from Docker toolset.

1. Living with microservices
@Pipedrive
Renno Reinum
A developer’s best friend

2. Kerberos
The Guard of Underworld
Deploy or not to deploy
That is the question

3. ● Pipedrive helps small businesses control the complex
selling process
● Founded in 2010
● 30,000 paying customers worldwide
● 170+ employees
● Office in Tallinn and Tartu
New York, NY

4. ● 20,000+ simultaneous online users

5. ● 20,000+ simultaneous online users
● 800+ API req/sec

6. ● 20,000+ simultaneous online users
● 800+ API req/sec
● 400,000+ incoming emails per day

7. ● 20,000+ simultaneous online users
● 800+ API req/sec
● 400,000+ incoming emails per day
● Started with Node.js based microservices, reactive
architecture in 2012

8. ● 20,000+ simultaneous online users
● 800+ API req/sec
● 400,000+ incoming emails per day
● Started with Node.js based microservices, reactive
architecture in 2012
● In total, 500+ VMs/hosts/instances

9. ● 20,000+ simultaneous online users
● 800+ API req/sec
● 400,000+ incoming emails per day
● Started with Node.js based microservices, reactive
architecture in 2012
● In total, 500+ VMs/hosts/instances
● More than 300 deploys per month

10. Pipedrive helps small businesses control the complex selling process

11. Evolution of the application
The birth of monolith:
Only kanban board

12. Evolution of the application
New features added:
Monolith growing

13. Evolution of the application
Bloated monolith:
Application
slowing down

15. Once upon a time
● We need to keep the pace of delivering
services!
● Teams need to be independent of each other
● How can we add new features daily basis and
still maintain it?
● Lets split it into microservices

16. Introduction to Microservice
Developers should write programs that can communicate
easily with other programs.
Break down projects into small, simple programs rather than
overly complex monolithic programs.
Eric Raymond - Unix Philosophy

17. Monolith vs Microservices
● Microservices systems are more flexible, loosely-coupled and scalable
● Easier to develop and easier to change
● More tolerant of failure. In case of one mircoservice fails, others should be
operational
http://www.randomant.net/the-cloud-is-a-paradigm-shift-in-software-dev/

18. And the new era begins
Deployment of new
microservice
From idea to production -
minimum 2 WEEKS

19. Characteristics of microservices (by Martin Fowler)
● Componentization via services
● Organized around business capabilities
● Products not projects
● Smart endpoints & dumb pipes
● Decentralized governance
● Design for failure
● Infrastructure automation

21. Virtual Machines vs Containers (Docker)
http://www.docker.com/what-docker

22. Visibility
Management
Interface

23. Visibility
Management
Interface

24. How not to create
microservices or any
other automation flows
● CI job hell
● Discovery
● Configurations hell

25. Mindshift of Developers
● Building
● Testing
● Discovery
● Monitoring
● Logging
● Alerting
● Dashboards

26. Agile Culture
in Pipedrive
Agile and lean means small and
fast and independent and in
Pipedrive we operate by small
cross-functional teams which
deliver regularly. Those teams win
small battles every day but their
operations are supported by
different types of other troops.

27. Devops Culture
in Pipedrive

28. Mindshift of Developers -
Now I master the Microservice concept
● Dockerfiles
● Docker-compose
● CI builds
● Tests
● Service discovery
● From idea to production
1 DAY

29. CI processes with Docker
● Provisioning of build
environment
● Pulling Docker images
● Docker builds
xkcd.com

30. CI processes with Docker
● Whole CI process can take a 1 - 3
minutes
xkcd.com

31. CI processes with Docker
Feedback from Developers:
● It’s still too sl.oOW
xkcd.com

32. CI processes with Docker
Feedback from Developers:
● It’s still too sl.oOW
● Make it slower, I can’t grab a
coffee
xkcd.com

33. Service developer
wants to run
Services we require
to run on the server

34. Challenges to be resolved
● Multi-datacenter/regions
● Autoscaling of containers
● Rollbacks
● Secrets management
● Development environment

35. Beware of the Gold Fever
“To make error is human.
To propagate error to all
server in automatic way is
#devops.”

36. Final Thoughts
● Define the problem you need to solve
● The right answer > 1

37. Final Thoughts
● Define the problem you need to solve.
● The right answer > 1
Thank you!
Feedback is highly encouraged :)
@rreinurm