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Episode 238:

What Every Developer Needs to Know About Microservices in 2025 with Mark Fussell, Founder & CEO at Diagrid

April 23, 2025

This week on The Data Stack Show, Eric and John welcome microservices expert Mark Fussell. Mark is Founder & CEO at Diagrid and Co-Creator of Dapr. In this conversation, the group explores the evolution of software architectures, focusing on the shift from monolithic to microservices systems. With over 20 years at Microsoft, Mark shares insights from his work on projects like Dapr and Azure Service Fabric. The discussion also covers the challenges developers face today, the importance of leveraging existing technologies to avoid reinventing the wheel, and the role of AI in enhancing productivity. Mark highlights how tools like Dapr simplify microservices development and emphasizes the need for continuous innovation in software architecture. Don’t miss this great conversation!

Notes:

Highlights from this week’s conversation include:

  • Mark’s Background and Journey in Data (1:08)
  • Mark’s Time at Microsoft (5:33)
  • Internal Adoption of Azure (9:20)
  • Understanding Pain Points (11:06)
  • Complexity in Software Development (13:15)
  • Microservices Architecture Overview (17:15)
  • Microservices vs. Monolith (22:08)
  • Modernizing Legacy Applications (24:39)
  • Dependency Management with Dapr (29:43)
  • Infrastructure as Code (33:04)
  • AI’s Rapid Evolution and Vendor Changes (37:27)
  • Language Models in Application Development (39:05)
  • AI in Creative Applications (42:59)
  • The Future of Backend Development (47:22)
  • Streamlining Development Processes (49:29)
  • Dapr as an Open Source Solution (51:11)
  • Getting Started with Dapr and Parting Thoughts (51:39)

 

The Data Stack Show is a weekly podcast powered by RudderStack, the CDP for developers. Each week we’ll talk to data engineers, analysts, and data scientists about their experience around building and maintaining data infrastructure, delivering data and data products, and driving better outcomes across their businesses with data.

RudderStack helps businesses make the most out of their customer data while ensuring data privacy and security. To learn more about RudderStack visit rudderstack.com.

About the Podcast

Each week we’ll talk to data engineers, analysts, and data scientists about their experience around building and maintaining data infrastructure, delivering data and data products, and driving better outcomes across their businesses with data.

To keep up to date with our future episodes, subscribe to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, Google, or the player of your choice.

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