Adopting microservices and DevOps in the cyber-physical systems domain: A rapid review and case study

Jonas Fritzsch, Justus Bogner, Markus Haug, Ana Cristina Franco da Silva, Carolin Rubner, Matthias Saft, Horst Sauer, Stefan Wagner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

The domain of cyber-physical systems (CPS) has recently seen strong growth, for example, due to the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) in industrial domains, commonly referred to as “Industry 4.0.” However, CPS challenges like the strong hardware focus can impact modern software development practices, especially in the context of modernizing legacy systems. While microservices and DevOps have been widely studied for enterprise applications, there is insufficient coverage for the CPS domain. Our goal is therefore to analyze the peculiarities of such systems regarding challenges and practices for using and migrating towards microservices and DevOps. We conducted a rapid review based on 146 scientific papers, and subsequently validated our findings in an interview-based case study with nine CPS professionals in different business units at Siemens AG. The combined results picture the specifics of microservices and DevOps in the CPS domain. While several differences were revealed that may require adapted methods, many challenges and practices are shared with typical enterprise applications. Our study supports CPS researchers and practitioners with a summary of challenges, practices to address them, and research opportunities.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)790-810
Number of pages21
JournalSoftware: Practice and Experience
Volume53
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2023
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • case study
  • cyber-physical systems
  • DevOps
  • interviews
  • microservices
  • rapid review

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