When should teams adopt ID propagation, and when should they avoid it?

ID propagation is a technique used in distributed systems to maintain context across service calls, ensuring that relevant information—such as user ID or transaction ID—travels along with requests through various system components. However, while it offers numerous benefits, there are specific scenarios where teams should consider adopting or avoiding ID propagation.

When to Adopt ID Propagation

• Microservices Architecture: When using microservices, ID propagation is essential for tracking requests across services effectively.
• Debugging and Monitoring: It helps in tracing and debugging distributed transactions, making it easier to monitor performance issues.
• Security Auditing: Maintaining context can aid in ensuring secure operations in compliance with regulatory requirements.

When to Avoid ID Propagation

• Overhead Concerns: If the additional overhead of propagating IDs impacts performance negatively, it might be best to avoid it.
• Simplicity: For simpler systems that do not require the full context, keeping the architecture less complex might be preferable.
• Data Sensitivity: If there are concerns about sensitive data travel across services, avoiding ID propagation can help mitigate risks.