What are we going to do with this big heap of menhirs? The Importance of Evaluating Architecture Trends Within the Context of Your Business

The story: Caesar has sent his top economist to Asterix’s village with a plan to get the Gauls to fight each other instead of the Romans. The economist starts buying menhirs from Obelix. Obelix becomes snooty, money-driven, and unpopular. But now the Romans have a different problem and the question arises:

What are we going to do with this big heap of menhirs?

In today’s fast-paced digital world, architecture trends can be tempting. However, following them dogmatically can be detrimental to your business in the long run. Instead, it’s crucial to evaluate architecture trends within the context of your unique needs and digital transformation goals.

A recent example of this is Amazon Prime Video’s live stream monitoring service. The team originally used a distributed microservices architecture, which caused overhead and was costly. Instead of sticking to their original approach, they made the bold decision to combine their microservices into a monolith and scale it. The result was a 90% reduction in architecture costs.

This is a great reminder that architecture trends must serve your company’s needs, not just follow the latest hype. Your architecture must fit within your digital transformation strategy, rather than being a mere add-on.

Here are some key takeaways to consider when evaluating architecture trends:

1. Understand your unique needs: Every business is unique and has different goals and objectives. Therefore, it’s essential to understand your specific needs and how they align with your architecture choices.

2. Don’t follow trends blindly: Just because a particular architecture trend is popular doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for your business. Always evaluate the trend within the context of your needs and objectives.

3. Consider your digital transformation strategy: Your architecture must fit within your digital transformation strategy and support your business goals. This means considering aspects like scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.

4. Be willing to rethink your architecture: If your architecture isn’t serving you well, don’t be afraid to make bold decisions and rethink your approach. This might involve going against the latest trends, but it’s essential to choose the architecture that will best serve your business.

In conclusion, architecture trends can be tempting, but they must be evaluated within the context of your business needs and digital transformation goals. Always remember that your architecture should serve your company’s needs, not just follow the latest hype. By considering your unique needs, evaluating trends critically, and being willing to rethink your architecture, you can build an architecture that serves your business well and helps you achieve your goals. If you don’t then you might end up like the Romans, with a big pile of menhirs that have no use to you, it costs you space and money with minimum results and you are wondering what are you going to do with them.

_{Illustration and story topic from https://www.everythingasterix.com/}