what are microservices?

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May 13, 2024

Selecting the appropriate architecture is a crucial phase when building an enterprise application. Software architecture can be defined as structural decisions. These decisions, once implemented, become expensive and often difficult to change. This is primarily because these strategic decisions lay the very foundation upon which the entire system or application is built.

The challenge lies in making the right choice at the first go. The complexity arises not only from the multitude of options available but also from the fact that each decision involves a careful evaluation of multiple factors. These can range from understanding the nature of the project, its scope, its future scalability, and the potential changes that might be required in the long run.

Therefore, arriving at the right architectural choice for a software project involves a complex interplay of numerous variables and factors, making it a challenging yet indispensable part of the software development process.

Throughout history, we've seen a shift in the preferred architectural style, alternating from monolithic systems to distributed ones. This change illustrates how challenging it can be to select the right architecture. Nowadays, many projects have embraced the Microservice architecture, a type of distributed system, with positive outcomes.

What are Microservices?

Microservices also known as the microservice architecture is a style that aims to structure applications as small independent services that are:

Microservices allow large applications to be separated into smaller independent parts, and each individual parts can call other services to fulfill a request without having to worry about dependencies. This approach prevents the tight coupling of services.

Advantages

  1. Microservices can be scaled individually.
  2. It’s easy to add and use a new service in your application.
  3. It’s easy to deploy microservices.
  4. Any technology can be adopted to build a microservice.

Disadvantages

  1. Microservices can become very complex.
  2. Security can be hard to implement in distributed systems.
  3. Transactions are harder between multiple microservices.
  4. Debugging problems can be harder.

Conclusion

As trends in application development continue to evolve, the debate between using microservices or traditional monolithic architectures will intensify. Ultimately, developers need to thoroughly understand their specific use cases to determine what works best.

Richard Arthur © 2024

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