Microservices: Building Scalable Apps for Today’s World

microservices-building-scalable-apps-for-todays-world

Introduction

Rapid change and disruption are now the norms, and agile organizations are better equipped to thrive in this dynamic environment. Organizations are adopting a microservices development approach to develop and update applications faster, scale with confidence and keep their data secure.

Microservices is a cloud-native architectural approach to software development where software consists of small independent services that communicate over well-defined APIs. Each service implements a single business capability in a defined context and is self-contained.
Microservices architectures enable innovation and speed up the time to market for new features by making applications easier to scale and quicker to develop.

Characteristic of Microservices

Autonomous

In a microservices architecture, each component service can be developed, deployed, run, and scaled independently of the other services. Services are not required to exchange their implementation or source code for additional assistance. Individual component communication occurs via REST APIs, message brokers, and event streaming.

Specialized

Each service has its technology stack, which includes a database and a data management model. A service can be divided into more minor services if developers add more code over time and the service becomes complex.

Resilient

Unlike monolithic architecture, the independent architecture of microservices promotes resilient behavior, i.e., if one process fails, the whole software doesn’t go down. Applications that use microservices respond to a total service failure by reducing functionality rather than crashing.

Decentralized governance

Microservice architecture encourages decentralized data management, just like decentralized governance. The microservices community favors decentralized control so that its developers can provide tools that other people can use to address the same issues. Each service typically maintains its database in a microservice application.

Scalable

Organizations can scale out subsystems that need additional resources without scaling out the entire application because microservices independently support the scalability of services.

Microservices Architecture

Through distributed development, microservices improve enterprise teams’ operations. Furthermore, businesses can work on several microservices at once. Many developers will be working on the same project simultaneously, reducing the time needed for development.
The architecture of microservices consists of the following;

Microservices Architecture (as explained above briefly)

2. APIs gateway

The entry point for the client is the API gateway. Clients call the API gateway rather than the services directly, and the API gateway then routes the call to the proper services on the back end.
The following are the benefits of using an API gateway:

  • Services can be refactored/versioned without updating changes to all the clients.
  • Services can use messaging protocols like AMQP.
  • Pre-configured policies for validation, transformation, caching, and authentication
  • Cross-cutting functionality like load balancing and SSL termination

3. Orchestration or Management

This component adds services to nodes, locating errors, redistributing services among nodes, and other jobs. Instead of being custom-built, this component typically uses an off-the-shelf technology like Kubernetes.

Microservices vs. Monolithic Architecture

Processes are closely connected in monolithic architectures and operate as a single service. As a monolithic application’s code base expands, adding or updating new features becomes more challenging. This complexity restricts experimentation and makes it challenging to implement novel ideas.
A microservices architecture allows for the development of applications as a set of autonomous parts that individually function as a service. These services connect through a clearly defined interface and simple APIs.

How microservices benefit the organizations

Executives and project managers are as enamored with microservices as developers are. This is because microservices more accurately represent how business owners wish to set up and manage their teams and development processes. This is one of the most unexpected qualities of microservices, as architectural enthusiasm is usually reserved for software development teams.
The Enterprise benefits of microservices include;

Independently deployable

Microservices provide Independent deployment; a team doesn’t have to rebuild and redeploy the complete application to upgrade the existing service.
Applications benefit from more excellent fault isolation and resilience due to the loose coupling of microservices. Additionally, the services’ small size and distinct boundaries and communication patterns make it simpler for new team members to comprehend the code base.

Precise scaling

Services can be scaled independently, enabling organizations to scale out subsystems that need more resources without scaling out the complete application. Organizations can fit more services onto a single host by using an orchestrator like Kubernetes or Service Fabric, which enables more effective resource use

Technologies mix

Teams can use a variety of technology stacks to choose the technology that best suits their service.

Agility

Bug fixes and feature releases are more straightforward because microservices are distributed independently. Without redeploying the entire application, the business can update the service. If something goes wrong, you can roll back an update.

Accessible

The more extensive process is divided into smaller bits, making it easier for developers to comprehend, update, and improve those processes. This architecture leads to quicker development cycles, especially with agile development approaches.

Data isolation

Modifying schema is more straightforward in microservices due to its autonomous architecture.

Challenges

Aside from their numerous advantages, microservices also present some challenges. Here are a few challenges to take into account when transferring to microservices.

1. Complexity
When switching from monolith to microservices, management complexity will significantly increase due to the increased number of services, teams, and deployment locations. Issues with one service can result from problems with another or vice versa.

2. Deployment and testing
While migrating to microservices, refactoring across service boundaries might be challenging. The adoption of microservices also presents significant testing challenges, including end-to-end and integration testing.

3. Lack of governance
The decentralized approach of microservices comes with many challenges. It supports so many frameworks and languages that software systems maintenance becomes hard.

4. Logging
Centralized logs are required in distributed systems to link everything together. Otherwise, it is impossible to scale the applications.

5. Network congestion and latency
More interservice communication may result from utilizing numerous small, granular services. Additionally, the extra delay may become an issue if the service dependency chain grows too long (service 1 calls service 2, which calls service 3, etc.).

6. Monitoring
A consolidated view of the system is essential for monitoring and identifying the root causes of issues.

7. Data integrity
Each microservice is in charge of maintaining its data persistence; thus, data consistency and integrity become challenging.

Conclusion

However, despite these difficulties, non-adopters and adopters continue expanding their commitments to microservices. Enterprises like IBM, Amazon, and Netflix have shifted from monolith architecture to microservice architecture. The adoption number is increasing as the day passes.

Microservices enable innovative development at the speed of modern business. Learn with Arcana how to deploy separate microservices into cloud environments to take advantage of the scalability and flexibility of the cloud. Build, modernize and manage applications more securely across any cloud with confidence.

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