/tags/monoliths/Recent content in Monoliths on biancarosa.com.brHugoenMon, 26 Jan 2026 16:22:57 +0000/posts/database-design-for-modular-monoliths/Mon, 26 Jan 2026 16:22:57 +0000/posts/database-design-for-modular-monoliths/<p><em>This post was originally published on my <a href="https://backendengineeringadventures.substack.com/p/database-design-for-modular-monoliths">Substack - Backend Engineering Adventures</a>.</em></p> <p>Last week, we covered deployment patterns - how to run multiple services from the same codebase. But here’s the thing: you can have perfectly separated Docker containers and still end up with a nightmare when it’s time to extract a module. Why? The database.</p> <p>This is where most modular monoliths, migration to microservices or service extraction fails. What starts with <code>JOIN payments.transactions ON orders.payment_id = payments.id</code> ends up becoming the coupling hell - suddenly extracting the payments module requires untangling months of accumulated database coupling.</p>