Don’t Use New Technologies Just Cause
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Obviously you should read and learn about new cloud services, languages and frameworks. However, do take some steps to ensure that using a new “thing” actually makes sense. I’ll give some pointers for approaching use of a new technology outside of a fun side project.
So you found the latest JavaScript framework, a new No-SQL database, or a way to query live data faster. The problem is you (or someone else) reads a few articles, reviews some documentation and wants to throw it onto a project. This will usually have a negative effect on projects if the decision made wasn’t thought out and planned accordingly. So what can you do correctly to enter the new technology world without building a large amount of technical debt?
Here’s a few key components I look for:
- Use Case
- Adoption of New Technology
- Documentation
Use Case
This one would seem obvious, but can be overlooked quite often. The first thought you should have is “does this technology make sense to use”. Remember to think about all use cases that are covered by current stack or what you actually need. For example, if you plan to replace a DynamoDB with another NoSQL service think of the following:
- Does it perform the lookups as fast as DynamoDB?
- If the service is in AWS, what will be the benefit of spinning up a different technology with the rest of the services?
- Are we able to scale in the same way?
The list goes on and on, which this should be hashed out. Now looking into these questions aren’t easy, reading an article is one thing, but what is the system like? So, I highly recommend building out a proof of concept to test any concerns. If you are in a work environment, this technology could stick around for years to come, are you ready for that? If the developers dropped work on it today, could this still be maintained? The trade offs between new and established will always be a struggle, but it’s worth being cautious otherwise the problem will be stuck with you (along with the outages).
Adoption of New Technology
Alright so people love saying “think outside the box”, “be the first” and etc. However do…
