A Systematic Mapping Study on Microservices Architecture in DevOps

Context: Applying Microservices Architecture (MSA) in DevOps has received significant attention in recent years. However, there exists no comprehensive review of the state of research on this topic. Objective: This work aims to systematically identify, analyze, and classify the literature on MSA in DevOps. Method: A Systematic Mapping Study (SMS) has been conducted on the literature published between January 2009 and July 2018. Results: Forty-seven studies were finally selected and the key results are: (1) Three themes on the research on MSA in DevOps are “microservices development and operations in DevOps”, “approaches and tool support for MSA based systems in DevOps”, and “MSA migration experiences in DevOps”. (2) 24 problems with their solutions regarding implementing MSA in DevOps are identified. (3) MSA is mainly described by using boxes and lines. (4) Most of the quality attributes are positively affected when employing MSA in DevOps. (5) 50 tools that support building MSA based systems in DevOps are collected. (6) The combination of MSA and DevOps has been applied in a wide range of application domains. Conclusions: The results and findings will benefit researchers and practitioners to conduct further research and bring more dedicated solutions for the issues of MSA in DevOps.

💡 Research Summary

The paper presents a systematic mapping study (SMS) that investigates the state of research on the integration of Microservices Architecture (MSA) and DevOps. The authors searched major digital libraries (IEEE Xplore, ACM DL, Scopus, Web of Science) for publications between January 2009 and July 2018 using keywords such as “microservice*”, “DevOps”, “continuous integration”, and “continuous delivery”. From an initial set of 1,212 records, 47 primary studies were selected after applying explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria that required a focus on the combined use of MSA and DevOps and the presence of concrete empirical data, design proposals, or tool descriptions.

The selected papers were classified by year, publication venue, and research method. A sharp increase in publications after 2015 was observed, reflecting the growing industrial adoption of both paradigms. Most studies are case‑based or design‑oriented; large‑scale experiments and surveys are still scarce.

Through thematic analysis the authors identified three major research themes:

1. Microservices development and operations in DevOps – This theme covers CI/CD pipeline construction, automated testing, container‑based deployment, service‑mesh adoption, and cultural/organizational changes. The literature emphasizes service independence, rapid release cycles, and easy rollback as key benefits, while also noting that DevOps practices (e.g., shared responsibility, continuous feedback) are essential for successful microservice adoption.

2. Approaches and tool support for MSA‑based systems in DevOps – The study catalogues 50 tools, grouped by functionality (deployment, orchestration, monitoring, logging, service discovery, security). Prominent examples include Docker, Kubernetes, Istio, Jenkins, Spinnaker, Prometheus, and Grafana. The authors compare tools in terms of automation level, scalability, integration patterns, and operational cost, highlighting that service‑mesh technologies are particularly valuable for traffic management and security policy enforcement.

3. MSA migration experiences in DevOps – Twenty‑four concrete problems encountered when refactoring monolithic applications into microservices are extracted, together with proposed solutions. Problems span data consistency, transaction boundaries, service‑boundary definition, legacy‑new service interface compatibility, and organizational restructuring. Suggested remedies comprise Domain‑Driven Design (DDD), event sourcing, saga patterns, API gateways, and staged migration strategies.

From a quality‑attribute perspective, the mapping reveals that most studies report positive impacts of MSA‑DevOps on performance, scalability, availability, maintainability, and security, although new security challenges and consistency concerns are also noted. Visual representation analysis shows that 68 % of the papers use box‑and‑line diagrams to depict service dependencies, deployment flows, and infrastructure topology, indicating a preference for simple, intuitive illustrations.

The authors also document the breadth of application domains: e‑commerce, finance, healthcare, IoT, media streaming, and gaming. High‑traffic, fast‑release environments benefit most from the combined approach.

In conclusion, the SMS highlights that the current research landscape is dominated by design proposals and tool listings, with a lack of large‑scale empirical validation and quantitative quality‑attribute evaluation. Future work should focus on deeper integration of automation tools, quantitative assessment of migration costs and risks, and the development of new patterns to address security and data‑consistency challenges. For practitioners, the compiled list of 50 tools and the 24 problem‑solution pairs provide an immediate, actionable reference for adopting MSA within a DevOps culture.