In this post, we will talk about microservices architecture, highlighting its characteristics, operation, advantages and disadvantages, so that you can define if it could fit in the development of your digital product.
What it is and how it works
Microservices are understood as a software architecture that determines how the different services (functionalities) are grouped within the same application. It is made up of many small services, independent of each other, but with a certain degree of cohesion. Each microservice should be as small and precise as possible, in addition to only corresponding to a context of the application to be developed.
To implement this architecture successfully, the http protocol (or others) is used to communicate the different microservices and an approach that is used not to expose them; there is a central microservice called api gateway to access the rest and connect them.
What is it for?
As a clean structure (LEAN Architecture) and fully scalable, if used correctly, it allows more efficient and faster deployments by deploying only one microservice at a time.
Although it works for large systems, it is necessary to have a good architect to design the structure. Otherwise, you run the risk of converting from an effective solution to a completely poor structure.
When it's used
The ideal is to use this architecture if you have a medium or large team that can work in a distributed manner. If the team is small, the implementation of microservices would be unnecessary.
Also, for an application that needs to scale, the microservices architecture is quite convenient.
Why use it
The microservices architecture has the following advantages:
- Product scalability.
- Possibility of independent and fast deployments.
- Minimum and expert work teams.
- Variety of programming languages (Java, .Net, PHP, Node.js).
- Ease of testing each microservice.
- Modular functionality, independent modules. Also, creating microservices using DDD and the hexagonal architecture can help a lot when organizing microservices.
- Use of containers that allow rapid development.
Disadvantages of microservices
Some disadvantages are:
- If your application is made up of many microservices, when deploying all of them, the deployment time can be enormous.
- High memory consumption.
- You need to think carefully about how to fragment your microservices.
- Management can be complicated when there are a large number of services.
- Need for the technical team to provide solutions to problems, such as network latency or load balancing.
- Complicated testing or testing due to distributed deployment.
If, after reading this note, you have decided that the microservices architecture will be the one indicated for the development of your business, do not hesitate to contact us. At MyTaskPanel, we can help you.
