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The IT industry has one of the most ever-changing natures, and it’s no surprise that IT professionals are always striving to stay ahead of new trends. One of the strategies to keep on track is the ability to modernize applications. That is why more and more organizations are turning to cloud-native solutions built on microservices.
Let’s find out why they are so important for modern developers.
What is Microservices Architecture
Let’s consider microservices architecture using an example of developing software for e-commerce. We can identify specific components: a user authentication system, a shopping cart for selected items, and a billing system for payment.
When developing such a system using microservices architecture, each area will be handled by a separate microservice. For example, the shopping cart would have its own microservice, and a dedicated developer or a team could develop it if the company is large enough. The shopping cart will have release schedules and deployment plans in place. It will be an independent software unit that can be completely rewritten without affecting other microservices. Additionally, while developing the shopping cart, a different technology stack could be used compared to the other microservices on the platform.
If you’ve ever used Amazon, you’ve probably noticed how it handles everything from product searches to order processing. Instead of having a single, large system managing everything, Amazon uses a microservices architecture. This means that each function, such as managing the product catalog, processing orders, handling payments, and tracking shipments, operates as an independent service. Each service can be scaled and updated without disrupting the others. So even during peak times, Amazon can manage high traffic.
Benefits of Microservices
Among the main reasons why you should try microservices are the following:
- Reliability and Flexibility: If one microservice fails or requires changes, it impacts only its specific functions, leaving the rest of the system unaffected.
- Modularity and Scalability: Different parts of the application handle specific operations. New modules can be added or removed at any time.
- Testability and focus on quality: New features can be tested directly in production. Each microservice is responsible for specific business tasks. Teams working on microservices strive to achieve better results because they know that the outcome depends solely on them at this stage.
- Independent Team Operations: Teams working on microservices can operate independently from other teams, enabling faster implementation and delivery of new features.
Disadvantages of Microservices
- Increased Infrastructure Costs: With each microservice, costs rise, including those for test suites, deployment instructions, hosting infrastructure, monitoring tools, etc.
- Additional Communication Layer: To effectively coordinate updates and interfaces, an additional communication layer between teams working on the microservices architecture is necessary, leading to increased organizational costs.
- Complex Development Environment: The division of the project into many microservices creates another challenge: the complexity of replicating a distributed architecture during local development setup.
Goodbye Monolith, Hello Microservices?
Monolith may seem like a thing of the past, but its simplicity still has its advantages. Monolithic architecture consolidates all application functionality – user interface, business logic, and data access – into a single codebase. This makes development, deployment, and updates straightforward since all components operate together. However, monoliths face flexibility, scalability, and maintenance challenges.
In contrast, microservices divide applications into independent services. We have parallel development, easy scaling, and greater resilience. If one service fails, others remain functional. Each service can even use its own database. Still, microservices are complex in managing communication, networks, and version control.
Microservice architecture is a solution for more complex and large-scale projects where flexibility, independent development, and resilience to failures are key requirements. However, its successful implementation requires careful management of communication between teams and services.
Monolithic vs Microservice Architecture
Take a closer look at this comparative table to analyze the main differences between monolithic and microservice architectures.
| Characteristic | Monolithic | Microservice |
|
Flexibility and Scalability |
Easy to develop, understand, and deploy, but flexibility decreases as functionality grows. | Highly flexible and scalable, but comes with challenges in managing networks and deployments. |
| Data Management | Simple since data is stored in a single database, but modifying its structure can be difficult. | Flexible database selection for each service, minimizes reliance on a single database, though it requires thorough planning. |
| Deployment and Updates |
Easy to deploy, but updates are tricky as they affect the whole system. |
Easier to update individual services, but managing versions takes extra effort. |
Which Tools Developers can use?
Developers integrate different tools into their routine workflow. These tools generally fall into two main categories: monitoring tools and testing tools.
- Monitoring tools focus on tracking the ‘health’ of a microservices architecture. They analyze data from application logs, metrics, and infrastructure components. These tools help to quickly identify and address potential issues.
For instance, Prometheus is used for event monitoring and collecting metrics. It has integrated Grafana that visualizes data in interactive dashboards. ELK Stack is great at managing logs to detect and troubleshoot issues.
- Testing tools, on the other hand, help verify that each microservice functions as expected under different scenarios. These tools check microservices in isolation and as part of the full system.
For example, Postman or Cypress are used to test APIs. Apache JMeter can simulate load and measure how microservices perform under stress. WireMock helps to simulate microservices for testing in isolation before full integration.
Proxies
Proxy tools are also essential for secure communication between microservices.
A proxy acts as an intermediary between clients and services. This tool has many benefits like better security, load balancing, and caching. It routes requests to the appropriate services, preventing direct access and helping balance traffic.
You might wonder, “Why can’t I just use a free proxy?” However, in fact it hides lots of potential security threats. Moreover, their effectiveness is usually lower than expected.
While proxies focus mainly on securing and balancing traffic, API gateways focus on various management tasks. Both tools are essential in a microservices environment.
With DataImpulse proxies, developers can forget about dealing with unreliable connections, security vulnerabilities, and performance issues. We have custom solutions for you and your team.
Why Developers Should Learn Microservices
First of all, if you want to stay relevant and in demand in the IT arena, it’s a must to start developing skills in this architecture. During the process, you focus on the scaling of individual components. So it’s easier to handle traffic spikes, improve performance, and reduce downtime.
Nowadays, microservices are really in great demand so it’s important to know how to operate and handle them. It can also help you to be more flexible while working on complex projects and to make resilient systems. Even, in terms of teamwork, you’ll learn how to collaborate with DevOps teams.
Updates will be simpler than ever. You can update individual services independently, without affecting the entire application. You’ll also spend less time on testing and debugging.
Being a developer can be challenging sometimes. With so many moving parts, things can get tangled, leading to delays and errors. Proxies simplify the integration and management of microservices, helping you stay focused on what matters most.
Conclusion
Summing up, a “monolith” is a single entity where all modules and components are tightly interconnected. Such an application is easy to develop and deploy, but difficult to scale. “Microservices” is an optimal solution for large projects that require flexibility and the ability to update or enhance. However, the complexity of development, management, and deployment is often greater than with a monolithic architecture. In this case, proxies can help manage and secure communication between microservices. After proxy integration, systems become more scalable and secure.
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