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Version: 14.x

Standardize Microservice Development with Custom Templates

The Scenario​

A rapidly growing company is managing dozens of development teams working on different projects. Each team creates microservices independently, leading to a proliferation of heterogeneous configurations.

The Challenge​

  • Inconsistency: Microservices have different structures, non-uniform logging and monitoring implementations, and CI/CD pipelines written from scratch for each project.
  • Slow Onboarding: New developers take weeks to understand their team's specific configurations and become productive.
  • Complex Maintenance: The lack of standards makes maintaining and updating services difficult, increasing the risk of errors in production.
  • Variable Code Quality: There is no "golden path" for development, so the quality and security of services depend entirely on the skills of the individual team.

The Solution with Mia-Platform​

The Platform Engineering team decides to use Mia-Platform Console and the Software Catalog to create and distribute reusable development standards for the entire company.

  1. Creation of a Project Blueprint: First, the team defines a Project Blueprint at the Company level. This Blueprint includes pre-configured environments (e.g., Development, Production), default Git and CI/CD providers, ensuring that every new project starts from a common, approved base.

  2. Development of a Custom Microservice Template: Next, the team creates a Template for a Node.js microservice. This template is not just a "hello world," but a true application skeleton that includes:

    • Standardized logging libraries (lc39).
    • Health check endpoints (/-/healthz, /-/readyz) already implemented.
    • A standard .gitlab-ci.yml pipeline that includes steps for linting, unit tests, and security scans.
    • A basic configuration for resources (CPU and memory) and Kubernetes probes.

  3. Publication in the Software Catalog: The template is published in the company's private Software Catalog. It is clearly documented, specifying its purpose and how to use it. It is assigned the "Backend Templates" category for easy searching.

  4. Self-Service for Developers: Now, when a development team needs to create a new microservice, they no longer start from scratch. They access the Microservices section in Mia-Platform Console, select "Create from Marketplace," and find the "Node.js Standard Service" template approved by the platform team. With a few clicks, the Console:

    • Creates a new Git repository by cloning the template.
    • Creates the new microservice in the project with all standard configurations already applied.

The Outcome​

  • Consistency and Standardization: All new Node.js microservices follow the same best practices, simplifying management and maintenance.
  • Increased Development Speed: Teams can create and deploy a new production-ready service in minutes instead of days.
  • Accelerated Onboarding: New developers are immediately productive, as the service structure and pipelines are already defined and familiar.
  • Quality and Security "by design": Security and quality practices are integrated directly into the template, reducing the risk of errors and vulnerabilities.

Thanks to Mia-Platform, the Platform Engineering team has transformed chaos into an industrial process, providing developers with golden paths and guardrails that makes them faster, more autonomous and more secure.