How microservices architecture is changing technology paradigm

Microservices is the current hot topic being discussed in the software development circles. People are using microservices architecture for their businesses instead of using monolithic approach. The traditional methods of building enterprise application i.e. monolithic approach creates many problems when business gets larger & complex. To avoid these problem developers are turning towards microservices architecture. In the microservices architecture, applications are structured together as a collection of loose services. Developers find it very easy to build and expand.

Microservices: A primer

It is important to understand what microservices architecture is about? According to software guru “ Martin fowler” microservices architecture consists of different suites of independently deployable services: around automated deployment, decentralized control of languages & data, around business capability and intelligence in the endpoints.

The main motive behind designing of the microservices architecture is that when applications are broken down into smaller segments they are simpler to design and maintain rather to work alone. When you are working with microservices, single software is divided into multiple modules and a single module is responsible for performing the desired task without disturbing the functioning of other module. All the modules communicate with each other via application programming interface (API) which is simple and universal accessible.

Applications which are built up using microservices architecture possess some distinct characteristics. They are as follows:

• They are divided into multiple modules which are loosely coupled components. Each of the module perform desired task.
• They have individual functions which are designed to align different business capabilities.
• They can distribute across data centers & clouds.
• Each and every function is independent which can be changed, deleted or updated without disturbing other modules of the application. In short, application designed for you grow according t the requirement of company growth.

Benefits of Microservices:

• Efficient debugging: Debugging becomes efficient as there is no need to jump through multiple layers and fault isolation becomes better.
• Accelerated Software Delivery: For building microservices architecture many programming languages can be used which gives the access to develop wider talent pool.
• Easy to understand the codebase: Productivity increases as each service represents single entity.
• Scalability: It is very easy to integrate various applications with other applications like REST interface.
• Reusability: They are not designed for a single business so can be reused again with some minor changes. It reduces the cost.
• Fault tolerance: Downtime is reduced.

History of microservices architecture

Martin Fowler told that first time microservices term was used in 2011 in a software workshop when some participants found that they are working on similar concepts. Later they described that concept with “microservices architecture” name and introduced the new paradigm.

In the year 2013, James Lews gave a presentation on “Microservices-Java , the Unix way” and elaborate the microservices architecture in a broader way. He outlined how microservices can change the technology paradigm.

Microservices architecture is not a new topic. Its roots are derived from three decades back UNIX world. The best part of microservices which make it unique is services are kept independent so that any service can be replaced without disturbing the working of entire application. With the passage of time, use of microservices architecture has increased. According to Fowler, microservices architecture is fast and quick and will become the default style for building the enterprise applications.

Most of the conventional wisdom still believes that microservices projects are best to install in brand new distributed software, but this is not true. A survey was done and it results shows that most of the businesses which are using microservices architecture have successfully deployed themselves from architect legacy applications and are successful now. Two thirds of the businesses are using microservices for both services i.e. new and existing applications. The benefits are quickly achieved and reach the targets within six months of deploying microservices.

Microservices & Containers:

It is not possible to talk about microservices without considering containers, a concept which came in existence in the 200s with FreeBSD project. Most of the developers feel that containers are naturally fit for microservices. The services which make an application can be kept in the containers that have inbuilt libraries and executables which are needed by the service or application, this makes each container a self-contained package. It has become very popular amongst the businesses.