As enterprise applications are experiencing all-time high demand, faster development and speedier delivery are two things every software development company is now concerned with. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) which is known for service-focused structure finally gave rise to Microservices which boasts of structure putting together loosely coupled services to help modularity, customisation and ease of development.

Microservices architecture upholding modularity and component-based approach helped to boost the pace of software development process in a never-before manner. Here through this blog post, we are going to define microservices and how it works besides explaining the benefits and tips to use microservices.

What Are Microservices?

Microservice is regarded as a software development methodology that incorporates a service-oriented architecture with loosely coupled single business-focused services. Such architecture has basically been introduced to address the shortcomings of larger applications while helping web developers to address issues and spikes separately with different components. This helps to separate concerns and delegating the task to every developer separately. When every developer can concentrate on every single task separately, the development process can be faster and less prone to errors.

The entire thought-process behind Microservices can be described as “Do one thing at a time and do it well”. Here are the key recognisable aspects of microservices.

  • Component-based architecture with each individual part focused on a single service.
  • The service-oriented components can be organised based on business capabilities
  • Microservices typically focuses on products instead of processes
  • Decentralized administration and information architecture
  • Each microservice is composable, minimal and self-contained for one function.

Why Microservices Are So Popular?

Microservices are increasingly getting popular a considerable number of leading apps now use this architecture for the express reason of unparalleled modularity and ease of development. Let us explain some of the key reasons behind the popularity of microservices.

Enhanced Speed And Agility

Thanks to Microservices companies can respond to user feedback and market demands with development inputs much more quickly. For incorporating a new feature or to make an existing feature more useful, the developers don’t need to delay the release of the entire app. Instead, they can release each microservice independently.

The Lesser Scope Of Coding Errors

The monolith architecture could not allow strict separation of the codebase for various service-oriented features that could result in a lot of unavoidable errors as developers break into each other’s code unknowingly. With microservice architecture that can completely be avoided as developers now can work with the independent code base. This helps in making software testing more efficient.

Increased Efficiency

Development companies using monolith architecture have the constraints of following a single technology stack common to all team members. In contrast, the microservice architecture allows using different technology stack and processes independently for building different service-oriented features. This increases the efficiency and pace of development tremendously.

Low Cost Scaling Up

As for scaling up to accommodate increased queries, monolith architecture requires enhancing the capacity of the entire software application. The microservice architecture provides relief by allowing scaling up each service separately. This helps developers to scale up services on the basis of priority and requirement instead of scaling up the whole app at one go.

Faster Onboarding

Microservice architecture also helps faster onboarding as developers can just start coding on a particular service independently. Instead of learning a total monolithic code for fixing a small bug they can just work on a single microservice to ensure fast development.

How Does It Work?

Microservice architecture can work across a variety of software applications involving different technologies and platforms. Let us describe below how microservices work.

Develop And Run Instantly

Microservice architecture follows “develop and run” philosophy. As developers just take full responsibility to build an app that can be run instantly, the development and deployment process remain intertwined.

Software Components Can Work As Separate Services

Thanks to the microservice architecture the components of a software system can be utilised as separate services by using elements such as web service or remote procedure call.

Key Tips For Utilising Microservice In Software Development

As per the experience of most developers dealing with microservice architecture, there are certain time-honoured principles to utilise this architecture to ensure more efficiency and performance. Let us explain some of the most effective tips for utilising microservice architecture in software development.

Make The Methodology Of The Development Project With Planning

Agile development methodology fits well with microservice architecture only if it is aligned properly with the project plan. The project planning should take all aspects including user journeys into consideration. Consider the below-mentioned aspects when considering project planning.

  • Make a plan for running simultaneous sprint pipelines pertaining to infrastructure, architecture, the definition of project requirement, DevOps, etc.
  • Ensure defining each metrics to help to measure the quality of the project with quantitative value.
  • Make a detailed plan for using infrastructure resources that include experts, software, hardware, and development tools.
  • Provide agile development training in the project induction.

Have A Detailed Infrastructure Management Strategy

Just because of not having an infrastructure management strategy many projects suffer from delay and indecision of all sorts. Getting to know the proper capacity of the infrastructure and getting it ready in time is crucial. This is why when using microservice architecture consider the following strategic aspects.

  • Start with the planning of capacity right from the beginning of a project and evaluate the same every once in a while.
  • Make sure that the project infrastructure including software, hardware and tools become ready well before the project.
  • Have a detailed plan for onboarding Hardware, Software and Services.
  • Make sure multiple environments for testing and integration can be accommodated.
  • Get on board an expert on infrastructure management capabilities to speed up the project setup.
  • Have a well-defined plan for project implementation right at the beginning of a project.

Team Management Tips

Unlike the monolithic projects in a microservice based development project, the team management needs to take care of developers of different microservices. So, the project managers need to ensure code consistency, coding standard and maintaining separation of coding among different microservices.

Consider the following tips for team management in a microservice project.

  • Have a team who will look after the “Configuration Management” and define their roles and responsibilities to take care of information pertaining to configuration and dependencies.
  • Have a “Contract Management” team consisting of developers and architects who will provide guidance about the interaction among various microservices.
  • Clearly make the DevOps team from out of the development team and on a rotation basis make every developer participate to have the first-hand experience of the DevOps.
  • Encourage multiple skill building on a continuous basis through training programs.

Cons of Microservices

Let us clearly tell that microservices are not for everyone and it only fits large development projects focused on delivering a wide array of services. Small development teams with limited resources should rather go for monolith approach in the beginning and thereafter as the team and project requirements grow they can adopt microservice architecture later on. Microservice architecture in spite of its stupendous benefits cannot fit into every software development project. You can only embrace microservice when you have a large team and a multifaceted and multilayered project addressing a variety of requirements.

Do you want to embrace the microservice architecture for your next development project? Let our experts guide you. Feel free to drop us a message for free consultation and know how.