If you answered any of the above questions as
‘yes’ we got some good news for you.
In this article, we are going to talk about how Microservices Architecture can help you to improve agility and increase the scalability of your app. But before we begin let us first discuss, what Microservices Architecture is.
85%
According to research conducted by Statista [1]: In 2021, 85% of respondents from large organizations with 5,000 or more employees state currently using microservices. This suggests that larger organizations are perhaps more likely to benefit from and require microservice utilization in their operations.
What is Microservices Architecture?
Microservices is an application component that is strongly encapsulated, loosely coupled, and independently deployable. Hence, Microservices Architecture is an application architecture where the application is developed as a collection of services. That app would provide you with the framework to develop, deploy and maintain microservices architecture diagrams and services. independently.
History of Microservices Architecture:
To provide a better source of communication between different platforms and to provide more user-friendly systems, Microservices was formed. At first, Microservices were considered as a software development technique that organizes an application as a group of loosely coupled services. However, on the current date, its function is to operate software applications by being a small service that interacts with other services. Microservices Architecture use services that are fine-grained and protocols that are lightweight.
Dr Peter Rodgers used the term “Micro-Web-Services” in 2005 during a presentation on cloud computing. Rodgers was usually against conventional thinking, and so he promoted software components supporting micro-webservices. In the presentation, he showed a functional model of microservices which eventually became a reality. In May 2011, Microservices premiered at an event for software architects where the term was used to describe a style of architecture that many of the attendees wanted to experiment with at that time.
Hence in this way, Microservices Architecture was started.
Examples of Microservices Architecture:
Here are two real-life examples of tech companies adopting microservice architecture to improve their efficiencies:
Microservices at Amazon
Amazon followed the system of Monolithic Architecture which meant that its developers had to be cautious while working, to make sure that nothing broke whenever an upgrade had to be undertaken.
All of this was fine unless the demand for amazon’s products increased. As a result, Amazon had to add more developers to work on it and the codebase became bigger. Because of this, the architecture became very difficult to modify and the software development lifecycle slowed down.
They started to face several problems like delays and coding challenges.
So, to improve its current situation, amazon decided to implement Microservices Architecture. The process began with developers analysing the source code and isolating units of code that fulfilled a single function. After that, the units were wrapped into a web service interface. A single service was created for the ‘Buy’ button on the product page. At last, each independent service was assigned to a team of developers which resulted in efficient resolutions.
Microservices at Netflix
The primary database of Netflix was corrupted, which caused a blockage on DVD shipping to members. After that, Netflix took the initiative to migrate to Microservices Architecture. It adopted highly reliable cloud-based distribution systems that were scalable horizontally.
By 2009, Netflix repositioned its monolithic architecture into microservices, one at a time. At first, it moved its movie-coding platform to operate on the AWS cloud through a standalone microservices' architecture. The process was completed in the year 2012 after it finished converting its user interface system completely.
As a result, Netflix was able to improve the efficiency of its software development team and reduced its costs.
Why use Microservices Architecture?
Some of the most important reasons to use Microservices Architecture include the followings:
Improved Agility:
It helps software engineers to increase the cadence at which they can deploy new features. Also, it facilitates agile DevOps and continuous delivery services.
Create a high degree of team autonomy:
Many organizations want to delegate their responsibilities to teams, where each team makes decisions and develops software autonomously. Here a Microservices Architecture would provide a structure to help the team work independently without close coordination. It does that by creating some hard barriers that create this kind of team autonomy.
Deploy new functionality with no downtime:
Microservices Architecture deploys new functionality without any downtime. Many SaaSbased business models need this kind of deployment because the company needs to make sure that it's software products keep running all the time.
When to use Microservices Architecture?
Some of the Major scenarios which demand the use of Microservices Architecture include
Now before coming to our main topic let us have a quick comparison between a Monolithic Architecture vs Microservices Architecture
Comparison table of Microservices and Monolithic Architecture
S.No. | Key | Monolithic Architecture | Microservices Architecture |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Basic | Monolithic architecture is built as one code base, and it is a very large system. | Microservices architecture is based on business functionality, and it is built as a small independent module. |
2 | Scale | It is difficult to scale as per demand | It is easy to scale as per demand. |
3 | Database | It shares its database system. | It has its own database system. |
4 | Deployment | The build time of this architecture is huge because of its large code base system. | Each project is very small and works independently. So overall build and development time gets decreased. |
5 | Tightly/Loosely Couples | It is very difficult to change technology or framework because everything is tightly coupled and depends on each other. | It is easy to change technology or framework because every module is independent. |
Factors to consider to be successful with Microservices:
Team structures should be aligned to the same business domain as the microservices so that a single team can take responsibility for the full set of business capabilities and work independently to deliver them.
Finally, success with the Microservices Architecture team requires team members to have knowledge of a variety of computing architecture patterns.
1
Microservices Architecture is best for continuous delivery. Here, each application and the environment it needs to function are stored in a distinct container. Because of this, editing each program in its container eliminates the possibility of affecting any other applications.
Users will have no downtime, and there won't be any disturbance even if an issue is found. Software updates are now achievable at a speed that puts continuous delivery because of the quick modifications that the microservice architecture enables. Microservice design enables quick updates without upsetting consumers by minimizing disturbance.
2
Moving at the pace of the market with the aid of microservice architecture helps you to enhance deployment velocity.
Applications may be relocated anywhere without changing the environment since they each run in their own containerized environment. A program will function for the consumer if it functions during development.
This shortens the time to market and improves the dependability of the product.
3
Microservices also assist you in being more responsive to the shipping market dynamics. Microservices enable applications to be updated and tested quickly, enabling you to keep up with consumer trends.
This improvised architecture also provides you with a competitive advantage in terms of creativity since they allow developers to experiment with apps without worrying about causing issues. Innovation helps you keep your present income streams while generating new money in today's industry, which is changing quickly.
4
Microservices give programmers the resources they need to create better software.
Each element of an application may reside in its container with a microservice architecture. Instead of having to select a single, language to utilize for everything, developers construct applications from a variety of components and write each component in the language most suited to performing its specific role.
5
Many firms are dealing with rising infrastructure expenditures. Because every component of a monolithic design interacts with every other component, changing one component might have a costly impact on other components.
Because of this, developers and operations specialists do a lot of work before they make improvements. Microservices shorten each update, requiring less time and resources to make subsequent modifications.
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