Keynote: The Challenges of Migrating 150+ Microservices to Kubernetes
summary
Financial Times migrates 150+ microservices (≈650 instances) from a homegrown container stack to Kubernetes, running both platforms in parallel while performing about 2000 code releases during the cutover. Migrations use Helm charts, templated Jenkins pipelines, a load-replay tool and health/readiness probes; fixes include adding vendoring for Go, tightening health timeouts and correctness of readiness endpoints. Results: lower costs, fewer incidents (3 vs 17 in the comparable month), two out‑of‑hours calls and break‑even in ~3 years.
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chapters (25)
- 0:00Start
- 2:12Why did we migrate to k8s?
- 3:12Spend your innovation tokens wisely
- 5:02Choose boring technology
- 5:33By late 2016, tools were maturing
- 6:08Late 2016: Consider the alternatives
- 6:42Opted for kubernetes
- 7:08Using leading edge technologies requires you to be comfortable with change
- 7:44Shouldn't be (too) scared about making the wrong decision
- 8:30At the start of this migration we had 150 services
- 8:49Complications of running in parallel
- 9:11We had well over 2000 code releases while running at least part of the stack in parallel
- 9:33Decisions, decisions, decisions...
- 10:15Separate deployment mechanisms vs a single deployment mechanism
- 11:10Risk-based approach to testing
- 12:12Doing anything 150 times takes time
- 12:38Integrating the service into a templated Jenkins pipeline
- 13:12Discovered a lot of 'broken' things
- 16:14Would have been better if...
- 16:42and the higher the costs
- 16:59Not just AWS costs either
- 17:13Going live
- 17:32Doing the migration
- 18:18The results
- 19:07Something where we can learn from others
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