Microservices is a distinctive and organizational approach to software development where the focus is on building single-function modules with well-defined interface and operations. Small, self-contained teams own these modules.

Microservice architecture makes the application easier to scale and faster to develop. This trend has grown viral in recent years as Enterprises look to become more agile.

How Microservices differ from monolithic?

In monolithic architecture, all the processes are closely linked and operate as a single service. It implies that if one application process reaches a surge of demand, the whole architecture must be scaled. Adding or improving a feature in a monolithic application can cause headaches as it becomes more complex as the code grow. Such uncertainty inhibits creativity, making it challenging to implement new ideas. Monolithic based architecture adds the risk for application availability because many dependent and tightly connected processes maximize the effect of a single process failure. 

With a microservices architecture, an application is divided into multiple independent modules that run each module as a service. These services communicate through a well-defined interface using lightweight APIs. Services are tailored for business capabilities, and each service performs as a single function. Since services run independently, now it is easier to update, deploy, and scale to meet the demand for the specific function of an application.  

Characteristics of Microservices:

Autonomous

Each component of service in a microservices architecture can be developed, deployed, operated, and scaled without affecting the functionality of other services. It doesn’t matter if any of the services do not share their code or implementation with other services. All Communication between individual components happens through well-defined APIs.

Specialized

Each service is built with a set of capabilities and focuses on solving a specific problem. If developers contribute more code to service and make it a complex, then service can be bifurcate into smaller services. 

Benefits of Microservices

1. Agility

Microservices foster small organizations of independent teams that take charge of their services. Teams operate within a specific and well-defined framework and are encouraged to act more effectively and more efficiently. It significantly shortens the development cycle, as well. 

2. Flexible Scaling

Microservices allow each service to be individually scale and meet the demand for the application feature it supports. It helps teams to measure the size of the infrastructure needs, accurately measure the value of a product, and sustain reliability if the system is facing a surge in demand.

3. Easy Deployment

Microservices allow continuous integration and continuous delivery, making it easy to try out new concepts or roll back if something doesn’t work. The low cost of failure encourages development, promotes software upgrades, and accelerates time-to-market for new features.

4. Technological Freedom

Microservice systems do not adopt the “one size fits all” strategy. Teams can choose the best tool to address their specific problems. As a result, teams building microservices can choose the best tool for each task.

5. Reusable Code

Dividing code into small, well-defined modules allows the team to use features for multiple purposes. Code of a specific function can be reuse as a building block for a new feature. It helps an application to bootstrap on its own, because programmers can create new features without writing code from scratch.

6. Resilience

Services independence enhances the resilience of the application to fail. In a monolithic architecture, if a single component fails, the entire system will fail. While microservice applications can handle total service failure by degrading the functionality and not crashing the entire application.

Future of Microservices Architecture

Whether or not microservice architecture will become the preferred style for developers in the future, it is certainly a powerful concept that provides serious benefits for the design and implementation of enterprise applications. Most developers or organizations have never used the term or even branded their activities as Monolithic but unknowingly leveraging the much-simplified approach that can be classified as microservices i.e., API.

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