ACID transactions in a monolithic application are a great, powerful and simple tool, that helps us guaranteeing data consistency inside our application.

But... what happens when we move from monolithic applications to distributed systems? We don't have a single database or ACID transactions anymore, and there is also a choice to make regarding the CAP theorem. But... is all hope lost? Or can we still somehow have transactions across service boundaries?

In this talk we will try to understand that complexity, see some alternatives, and how the SAGA pattern comes to the rescue here.