To succeed, startups need to move rapidly. Code sprawl and tightly coupled services are inevitable outcomes of prioritizing velocity above code quality as they expand. Because of this, implementing even minor features or refactorings becomes a huge hassle. At this point, many startups have started looking into microservices. Unfortunately, this is the equivalent of constructing a new home for the sink in an unclean kitchen. New difficulties arise when using microservices, such as orchestration, lifecycle management, versioning dependencies, etc.
Meet Gauge, a cool start-up developing open-source solutions to the microservices vs. monolith debate. To do this, Gauge facilitates teams’ construction of a modular monolith. Tach is Gauge’s initial product; it adds functionality to your monolith from microservices without the associated annoyances.
By breaking a monolith into separated modules with clearly defined interfaces, you can achieve the advantages of microservices without dealing with the massive complexity that comes with them. Gauge’s recent developments, such as adding support for test effect analysis, visualization, and rewriting the core in Rust (~19x speedup), provide a sense of relief from the overwhelming intricacies of microservices.
With Tach, you can manage which Python modules rely on which others. To avoid tight dependency, modules can also specify a public interface. This results in a modular, decoupled design that facilitates development and maintenance. Any attempt by one module to import another that isn’t explicitly declared as a dependency will result in an error message from Tach. When a module is set to “strict mode,” Tach will raise an error if another module attempts to import from it without using its public interface.
Tach is a command line tool that is perfect for carrying out continuous integration checks and pre-commit hooks. Notable characteristics include:
- Free and public
- It can be installed with the pip command
- Suitable for gradual implementation
- Put into place without affecting runtime
- Compatible with the systems you already have in place (cli, hooks, ci, whatever)
Intelligent cached task execution, architecture enforcement, smart build and deployment pipelines, and more will be added to Gauge’s suite of tools for scaling modular monoliths shortly. Also, it is a fresh method that lets customers launch the modular monolith as a collection of standalone services. This will transfer the remaining set of advantages microservices offer, including fault tolerance and independent scalability. Google published a paper outlining this concept not long ago.
The post Meet Gauge: A New AI Startup Building Open Source Tools to Solve the Microservices/Monolith Dilemma appeared first on MarkTechPost.