> We wouldn't want it to be too easy to create a new microservice, would we? :)
i'll assume you're serious, so i agree. every time someone launches a new service, there's an ongoing burden to maintain that service in production. so maybe one heuristic would be to make the cost of launching a new service roughly comparable to the discounted cost of maintaining that service for its entire expected lifetime. then you could use the rule of thumb that if it costs you X to build it, it'll cost you a second X to maintain it, so you should only do it if you get > 2X value out of it.
see also: http://classicprogrammerpaintings.com/post/131118350394/army...