Frameworks and high-availability in microservices: An industrial survey

While building microservice-based applications, architects need to choose among different frameworks to provide generic functionalities to address quality attribute concerns, such as high-availability. Although using frameworks brings various benefits, it is not clear how they actually impact on the properties characterising the high-availability of microservices. To this end, this article reports the level of agreement among practitioners on the positive and negative impact of frameworks on the high-availability of microservices. More precisely, we first systematically identify 12 properties characterising the high-availability of microservices. We then present the outcomes of an industrial study showing how existing open-source frameworks positively/negatively impact on the 12 properties characterising high-availability of microservices. Results indicate that practitioners agree on the fact that frameworks do positively/negatively impact on high-availability of microservices, and provide a first body of knowledge for suitably selecting frameworks while developing and deploying microservices.