Microservices is an architecture based on the principle of a distributed system. It combines several independent services that are easy to maintain and deploy. Every service is organized to function in an isolated way to impact no other services. Microservices overcomes the limitation of a central system where there is a central database and instead provides a framework for fast, effective and reliable services thus increasing the delivering capabilities of complex applications.

Old applications were developed on the monolithic architecture where adding or altering any feature of the app required long procedure and these changes affected the entire working of the applications. Consequently, it became an impediment in the development of the enterprise since it crippled the quick delivery of application services. On the arrival of the Microservices architecture in the market, it became a popular way to make the services scalable yet easily deployable. The microservices provide scalable services and they can be modified independently without affecting other services. By scalability, it is meant that the system can handle any new added resources/services without interrupting the entire working model. Every service thus works individually and independently which causes no overlapping of the work done by developers of two different modules of the same application.

By implementing microservices the organization thus becomes more efficient in quick delivery. Thus it can significantly help businesses to improve their profit.

How does microservices work?

The microservices works by dividing complex applications into smaller and independently deployable modules. These modules are scalable and any change in a module will not affect the other modules. This will prevent overlapping between the services and make the system robust. These modules can be distributed to cloud or data centers and uses APIs to comminate with each other.

Platforms used to implement microservices

One smart way to implement microservices is through docker. It is the coolest software that encapsulates the microservice in an isolated container that has its separate software, libraries and configuration files and these containers can interact with each other through specific channels defined. Docker makes it easy for the application to be scalable via the use of container instance.

Deploying the container-based application comes with a challenge of its maintenance. This has lead to the development of an orchestrated tool called Kubernetes is which is primarily used for deploying container-based applications or distributed applications. It provides the software that acts as scheduler and manager for the containerized services.

Advantages of microservices

Microservices improves the scalability of applications to reduce the time to debug any code. Every discrete service is isolated in such a way that any fault in one service will have no impact on the functioning of others. Since the complex application is divided into simpler modules the developers can be focused on a single service at a time hence it improves their efficiency to work. This boosts the overall productivity of developers as the debugging and maintaining the system becomes less complex.

A scalable system can always take the risk to implement new schemes and algorithms in its system thus making business able to adapt and assess new plans for improvement. When innovations happen and new or updated technology disrupts your software development process.

Disadvantage

Nevertheless, an organization needs to consider the complexity that adopting a procedure for Microservice architectures entails. Often there may be unforeseen interconnection that can create complexity. Thus the architect team must carefully plan the microservice approach keeping in mind the interdependency and functionality of discrete services. Organizations require a highly professional and experienced team who is skilled in handling microservice architecture. Microservices architecture can rely on third parties to provide the services if not well coordinated with may lead to malfunctioning in the application. The team must know any changes done by the third party in their APIs to avoid any breakage. Also, as this architecture works on the various OS it is vulnerable to getting attacked by the hackers.

When to Use Microservices?

Any organization that sees heavy and dynamic traffic patterns must be resilient to the updates or changes in existing services.

Who Uses Microservices?

Many globally successful tech companies have seen tremendous growth after their establishment.

Thus they chose to migrate from the monolithic architecture to microservices applications to support their ever-expanding business. Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, Uber, Paypal, and Amazon are some of the world’s largest companies that have undergone this transition to microservices to gain flexibility and agility in business. Having adopted microservices they are open to adopting any new technology without facing bottlenecks.

Correct implementation of the microservice fosters high profit

If Microservices are implemented correctly through proper assessment of the resources and existing connections between services it can prove a financially successful step for a business. Every new service that is added to the existing system must be kept track. Also how does is connect with the underlying microservices is a matter of importance for the developer team to make an errorless scalable system.

New generation likes new technology but if the system is locked in with the old technology it would be demotivational for the new developers working onboard. Restructuring the organization brings radical agility making it exciting for the developer team to create an autonomous system as every individual developer team is free to choose the technology they like to use for the service. Hence, the purpose-driven organization and a service-oriented architecture both when combined deliver radical agility to the system.

So the prerequisites of microservices are the three things shown below

Rapid provisioning

Rapid application development

Basic monitoring

Apart from the operational setup, an organization must keep a check on this autonomous system for security purposes. The organization may follow 4 eye principles, audit trails, identity and access management and data protection agreement to keep the system secured. Splitting the complex system into a smaller problem makes the company more independent in implementing microservices. Hence the companies that are now expanding and want to enter into the world of microservices must learn from the experience of the top leading tech companies who have gained a lot after correctly incorporating microservice architecture.