Microservice Architecture Explained. Microservice Architecture for enterprise.

Software development architecture has seen tremendous growth in recent years. Microservice Architecture is a much-improved version of the modular approach. We will be addressing Microservice architecture as MSA throughout the article.MSA has gained popularity only in recent years. Like most other software development concepts, MSA doesn’t have one standard definition.

MSA is the process of creating a large number of smaller services that are completely independent of each other. These smaller services communicate with each other to create a complex software system. These services are fully standalone and can be developed, deployed and maintained by separate teams. Each service is developed to perform a specific task and it doesn’t impact other services. This is why MSA helps in scalability.

Microservice Architecture for enterprise.

If you’re new to MSA it will give you a perception that it is useful for developing smaller and simpler applications. In reality, big enterprises are using MSA to develop full-scale applications for their business. Most companies/startups prefer to start their product development using monolith architecture since it’s simple and quick. Once their product develops beyond a certain limit scaling becomes a challenge. Since all the modules are tightly coupled in monolith architecture, scaling requires redeployment of all the modules.

This is where MSA is a game changer. When Enterprise uses MSA for software development and wants to scale, then

• No need to rewrite the whole application, just rewrite the individual service which needs to be scaled.
• Since each service performs a small task, it is easier to code, maintain and scale in MSA.
• There is no need to wait for approvals from other teams to modify one service. Scaling the application is much faster in MSA.

A number of International enterprises have switched over to MSA just for the sake of scalability. Some of them are Amazon, Spotify, Walmarts, etc. All 3 of the above have reported significant development in their conversions once they embraced the Microservice Architecture.

One possible approach for using MSA in Enterprise development is to create multiple and smaller Full Stack teams each working on individual services. Each and every team will have front-end, back-end, testers, UI designers, etc. Their responsibility is to develop and maintain one single service without impacting other modules.

Pros of MSA

• Teams have complete freedom and can work without any external interference.
• Each and every module can be written using a different language though it is not highly recommended.
• Development, deployment, and testing are much faster.
• A lot easier to change, scale and maintain individual services
• A straightforward approach to error detection and correction
• Integration with third-party apps is made much simpler

Cons

• When the number of services in the system is increased beyond a certain limit, it leads to information overload and might become difficult to monitor.
• If the frequency of calling services increases, it will lead to network latency.
• In some cases, duplication of services might occur
• Switching your existing application from Monolith to Microservice Architecture is a time consuming and complicated task.

Microservice Architecture in the near future is most likely to be successful and more widely used.