Microservices architecture has been consistently gaining a foothold in the software development industry for quite some time now.According to recent survey from Nginx, microservices is touted to go mainstream in the immediate future, with 36 percent of enterprises surveyed currently using it, and another 26 percent conducting research and running pilot projects.
Microservices architecture is a software development variant for developing large applications. Services are split as discrete units based on business functional area. So, what does this mean for project deployment? Modules within a software are independently deployable, and that makes it a decentralized approach to development.
The primer for Microservices: Single responsibility principle
The single responsibility principle,as developed by Robert C. Martin propagates the theory that it is optimal to gather things that change for the same reason together while separating the things that change for different reasons. Along the same lines, with microservices architecture, building applications becomes a more straightforward process with constituent elements broken down into smaller pieces that work seamlessly together. This translates to the fact that software functionality becomes platform-agnostic and therefore, dependency on a central infrastructure is less.
Microservices versus Monolith
Applications developed on monolithic architecture have the component codes working as one cohesive unit. They are interconnected and interdependent and even share the same memory space. This comes with a considerable drawback whenever there is a need for change or update. The entire stack must be built and deployed together, always keeping in mind the need for scalability in each stage. In this context, Microservices may potentially offer many benefits.
Ample flexibility
One of the main advantages of choosing a microservice architecture is the freedom it offers to choose from a variety of tech stacks, based on the service requirement. Each microservice can be written using a different technology. The decoupled services written in different programming languages could still work alongside other fragments without conflicts.
Basic simplicity
At its core, microservices architecture spells of simplicity. The applications are split into smaller composable fragments making it simpler to build them. When each microservice function as a separate chunk of code, it would be easy to manage the output while minimizing errors. The problems found in one service could be easily fixed without causing any trouble to the segments working fine, since overall dependability is reduced effectively.
Better organization and cross-functionality
Microservices make it easier for individual teams to focus on building specific business functionality. By organizing development teams around business capabilities rather than technologies, the use of microservices gives rise to services that are adaptable for use in various contexts. This makes it an efficient case for cross-functionality.
eBay :A case in point
Most e-commerce giants considered the switch from monolithic architecture to microservices while faced with the big enterprise technology question. eBay had a monolithic architecture set up in 1995; now it has more than 1,000 services that run on various platforms.
The Bottom-line
Microservice architecture provides organizations an edge over other forms of enterprise architecture. Developers have greater autonomy in tech stack decisions and can maximize the speed of deployment without compromising on application reliability. With adequate planning and sound architecture taken into consideration, the microservice architecture looks like the way forward.