When you’re at the beginning of your app-building journey, you may consider whether you should develop a monolithic architecture or microservices. There are some pros and cons of both solutions. Read our article and choose the solution that best fits your project.
What Are Microservices?
A Microservice is a software engineering organizational practice. Microservices are developed by splitting the large, monolithic systems of an application into small, independent components. They might be strictly tied to business demands related to, for example, teams, budgets, payments and other functional or operational processes. Microservices are usually easier to develop and manage than monolithic architecture. This is why some companies, as they grow, decide to split up their monolithic applications.
To learn more about developing microservices for monolithic systems and the opportunities this provides, we highly recommend contacting a company specialized in such development.
How To Start Building Microservices?
Microservices are usually developed in a few steps. First, we need to start by building a monolith. In the MVP stage, developing microservices might turn out to be an unnecessary complication, difficult to coordinate. When your app doesn’t require a lot of features and isn’t attracting a significant number of users yet, building a monolith will be more cost-efficient and manageable. If equipped only with core functionalities, it’s technological and business development will remain much simpler, so don’t make things too complicated. Once your app starts actually working and you receive feedback from users, you may start to equip your app with other functionalities users need and soon shift from monolith architecture into microservices.
However, it is important to think of this future transformation at the beginning of development. Keeping the code clear, with distinct modules will make the transition into microservices much smoother and faster, as complicated code might become very difficult to break down.
Not Only Technology
Significantly, building microservices is not only about technology, but also re-organizing business teams and resources. Despite splitting up the codebase, you may probably also need to restructure your organization. If your development team is split into front-end and back-end, it is quite obvious that they will most probably just deliver two monoliths. To successfully build microservices, they should be developed in small teams where everyone is cooperating. This way they are able to create and maintain the particular part of the service they’re in charge of. The key to successful microservice development is understanding the impact of each other’s work on the whole project and working together to achieve the common goal.
Splitting the Monolith
Once you’re done transforming your organization and identifying needs, it’s time to split the monolith into a microservice architecture. First, keep communication between the services simple by adopting a RESTful API. This will ensure the smooth transmission of data. Next, divide your data structure. If you have only one single database attached to the monolith system, it’s time to change it. As the microservices operate independently, they should also have independent access to relevant sources of data. Such a solution will make managing and evolving databases easier and will ensure smooth transfers.
The third step is building microservices that are prepared for failure. Although they are separate, at some point they are also bound. Then, in case one of them fails, the others should still work well. To diminish the risk of breakdowns, you also need to run more comprehensive monitoring and testing, much more complex than for monoliths.
Things You Need To Know About Microservices
Microservices offer great flexibility and can be used in multiple business concepts. This is why they are becoming more and more popular. They provide you with better functionality and help organize complex projects by identifying and formalizing their components. However, there are a few drawbacks that you need to be aware of. Creating microservices is a complex and long-term process that needs to be constantly extended in scope and improved. To build microservice architecture successfully, you should do so on a strong foundation of business and technology strategy.
To sum up, building a microservices-based architecture makes maintaining and developing apps easier, but you need to carefully consider whether this approach is proper for you at your current stage of development and business needs.
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