Method for migrating monolithic software systems and their global database to isolated microservices

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61467/2007.1558.2026.v17i4.1434

Keywords:

monolithic systems, microservices migration, database decomposition, database-per-service, sistemas monolíticos, migración a microservicios, descomposición de bases de datos

Abstract

Migrating monolithic applications to microservice architectures offers benefits such as scalability, resilience, and continuous deployment. However, decomposing shared monolithic databases remains a major challenge due to strong structural and functional dependencies among application components and shared relational schemas. This paper proposes a semi-automatic decomposition method that identifies candidate microservices and service-specific databases through static analysis of use-case interaction sequences, source code dependencies, and database access relationships aligned with business capabilities. The proposed approach evaluates structural coupling using the Shared Table Coupling Index (IATC) indicator before and after migration. The method was validated through a case study and an empirical evaluation involving 17 monolithic systems from public repositories. The results show a statistically significant reduction in shared-data coupling, with an average reduction of approximately 91%, indicating the effectiveness of the proposed approach for reducing structural dependencies during monolith-to-microservices migration.

 

Spanish-language metadata / Metadatos en español
Título en español:
Método para migrar sistemas de software monolíticos y su base de datos global hacia microservicios aislados

Resumen:
La migración de aplicaciones monolíticas hacia arquitecturas de microservicios ofrece beneficios como escalabilidad, resiliencia y despliegue continuo. Sin embargo, la descomposición de bases de datos monolíticas compartidas continúa siendo un desafío importante debido a las fuertes dependencias estructurales y funcionales entre los componentes de la aplicación y los esquemas relacionales compartidos. Este artículo propone un método semiautomático de descomposición que identifica microservicios candidatos y bases de datos específicas para cada servicio mediante el análisis estático de las secuencias de interacción de los casos de uso, las dependencias del código fuente y las relaciones de acceso a la base de datos, en correspondencia con las capacidades del negocio. El enfoque propuesto evalúa el acoplamiento estructural mediante el indicador denominado Índice de Acoplamiento por Tablas Compartidas (IATC), antes y después de la migración. El método se validó mediante un estudio de caso y una evaluación empírica que incluyó 17 sistemas monolíticos procedentes de repositorios públicos. Los resultados muestran una reducción estadísticamente significativa del acoplamiento de datos compartidos, con una disminución promedio de aproximadamente el 91 %, lo que demuestra la eficacia del enfoque propuesto para reducir las dependencias estructurales durante la migración de sistemas monolíticos a microservicios.

Palabras Claves:
sistemas monolíticos; migración a microservicios; descomposición de bases de datos; base de datos por servicio; análisis estático.


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2026-08-02

How to Cite

Hernández López, O., Santaolaya Salgado, R., Valenzuela Robles, B. D., Castro Sánchez, N. A., Rojas Pérez, J. C., & Ruiz Paz, S. F. (2026). Method for migrating monolithic software systems and their global database to isolated microservices. International Journal of Combinatorial Optimization Problems and Informatics, 17(4), 233–251. https://doi.org/10.61467/2007.1558.2026.v17i4.1434

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