Microservices breaks down monolithic software systems into smaller, manageable independent services, and it has the potential to pick up where service-oriented architecture (SOA) left off.

But as with SOA, some are skeptical that microservices can live up to its promises. To better understand where organizations stand with microservices, TechRepublic Premium conducted an online survey in March-April 2020 to learn what the awareness level is when it comes to microservices, as well as usage and benefits.

The survey asked the following questions:

• How familiar are you with the concept of microservices?
• Which application development practices and/or technologies do you currently use?
• Have you integrated microservices into your application development process?
• What benefits of microservices have you seen?
• If you haven’t integrated microservices, why not?
• Are you considering integrating microservices into your application development process?
• If you are considering integrating microservices into your application development process, what benefits do you hope to see?
• If you are not considering integrating microservices into your application development process, why not?
• Do your application development teams have the necessary skills to use microservices?

Microservices is definitely on the radar of most organizations. The overwhelming majority of respondents are either very familiar (66%) or somewhat familiar (30%) with microservices. Only 1% of respondents are not at all familiar with microservices. As with knowing about it, most respondents—this time, 73%— have integrated microservices into their application development process.

For organizations that have integrated microservices, they are seeing many benefits. Faster deployment of services tops the list of benefits at 69%, followed by greater flexibility to respond to changing conditions at 61%, and quickly scaling up new features into large applications at 56%.

Talent is the biggest barrier to integrating microservices for 37% of respondents, as is not being familiar enough with microservices (34%). Legacy systems are also a hindrance to 30% of respondents. Others respondents don’t think that the benefits are there and can’t justify integrating microservices when there is no clear reward. Some say that with a small team it’s not worth the overhead, while others are looking for simpler solutions.

To read all of the results from the survey, plus analysis, download the full report here: Research: Microservices bring faster application delivery and greater flexibility to enterprises.