Brief Overview – Whitepaper Contents
APIs as a Fundamental Requirement for the Existence of Digital Ecosystems
Companies looking to establish or operate a DP may face several technical challenges to offer their services. Service availability is paramount in this context. Functions and products of DPs must be reliable, ideally without interruptions, even during service adjustments or under challenging conditions (e.g., increased call volumes). Furthermore, digital platforms should be easily and rapidly expandable, thus bringing flexibility and scalability…
Successfully Managing Service Changes through API Lifecycle Management
The public availability of DP services through APIs also carries significant responsibility. Partner systems that connect through a partner API become dependent on the availability of these services. If an API is not accessible, it can lead to damaging consequences for both the provider and the user of an API in terms of business and reputation…
Scaling the Architecture of a Digital Platform through Microservices
In addition to aiming for stable APIs with predictable version changes through the right API lifecycle management, DPs must also ensure the availability of their services under challenging conditions. This capability is called scalability. To be scalable as a DP, an appropriate underlying architecture is required, one that remains performant even under high load or can be easily expanded. In this context, microservices architectures are a proven architectural pattern, serving as the counterpart to traditional monolithic architectures…
Therefore, the PAWLIK Digital approach is a hybrid combination of classic and agile methods, which will be examined in more detail in this chapter.
Collaboration and Communication among Microservices
Dividing applications into loosely coupled microservices requires establishing an efficient and standardized way for collaboration and communication between different domains. Private APIs enable individual microservices to retrieve specific functions from other applications. This allows individual microservices to be more streamlined since they do not need to retain required functions in their own code but can request them from other microservices when needed…
Rapid and Secure Development and Deployment through DevOps
As business domains are separated into microservices, it enables teams to work autonomously in isolated and well-defined contexts. This empowers them to work independently and efficiently from each other, reducing cycle times for the development and deployment of services and functionalities. The necessary mindsets, practices, and tools are defined by the so-called DevOps.
Testing Innovative Functionalities through Canary Deployments
Through microservices and DevOps, DPs can further promote their willingness to experiment and innovate. Teams that know their domain best can quickly test innovative ideas (through automation) with minimized risk (adequate testing, reliable monitoring). The latter is crucial as innovations often come with a degree of uncertainty. Therefore, Canary Deployments are suitable for testing the effects of new features and reducing the risk of innovation failure.
