A Theoretical Approach to understanding Microservices

Building scalable applications has become a crucial criterion for application development, and it has developed over time by utilizing many technologies that simplify the entire process of accomplishing this aim. Many of us are familiar with one client to one server communication in an application known as a Monolith application structure. And while this structure has aided, it also has drawbacks when an application grows in size over time and management becomes a difficulty in various areas such as code structure, DevOps, deployment, database, and so on. The Microservices Architecture comes into play to fill the gaps left by the monolithic framework. What is a Microservice or Microservice Architecture, exactly?

What is a Microservice/Microservice Architecture?

It is the process of categorizing an application into various services. This procedure aids in the division of a large application into smaller service parts. It makes it loosely connected and easily deployed to a variety of cloud services while retaining scalability and platform end goal.

As previously said, an application might grow so huge that it becomes difficult to maintain and scale. This could result in a bottleneck in communication between various program functionalities. It may be tough to implement a new feature in the case where one is required. Looking at it from the perspective of an application outage, if one or more portions of the application are down, it will result in the complete downtime of the entire application. All of this can be avoided with the microservice design and workflow since the application has been studied and divided into numerous services, and if one of them fails, other elements of the program that do not rely on the failed service will continue to function normally.

Monolithic Vs Microservices

This is one discussion that most developers get incorrect, which leads to a bunch of unexpected complications later on in the development process or when the application is in use. "A microservice architecture is not a substitute for using a monolithic architecture." Similarly, not all applications should be designed utilizing the microservice architecture. The monolithic design (which is still generally accepted by many development teams) plays an important function and can also be utilized to build an efficient and scalable application. It is not limited to small or medium-sized applications. Which one to use (monolithic or microservice) is determined by the application you are attempting to build.

"Is it an application with several features that could be split into different services?" should be questioned. Consider a food ordering application that includes the purchase of food, payment through the application, and delivery to customers. If we look at this application as a case study, we can separate numerous standalone components such as payment, delivery, and more. In this case, it is advisable to approach the software as a series of services from the start, because as time passes and new features are added, growing the application in a monolithic structure becomes difficult.

Key Characteristics and Benefits of Microservices

Microservices have important properties that make them universally acceptable and valuable. It is:

1. Independently Deployed: The structure enables each service to be deployed separately and without regard for where the other services are placed. As an engineer, this allows you to handle each service separately, which minimizes the time it takes to fix issues, implement features, and grow the application. For example, one service may be hosted on an AWS server while another is put on Azure (according to the role it serves).

2. Loosely Coupled: The term "loosely coupled" refers to a microservice architecture in which each service is not completely reliant on the others. Some services operate completely independently and require little or no data or contact with another service (even though they are all part of a whole application). Loosely coupled microservices provide several benefits, including increased scalability, simplified maintenance, and the ability to upgrade or replace individual microservices without affecting the entire system. This technique allows for greater flexibility and adaptation in a dynamic and ever-changing software environment.

3. Multiple Choice of Communication Mechanism: This architecture supports the use of many communication protocols, providing the user or developer with a variety of options. Microservices can communicate utilizing REST APIs, which are likewise used in monolithic systems. It also employs messaging brokers such as RabbitMQ, Kafka, Redis, and others. These brokers allow data to be transferred between services.

4. Technology Diversity: Microservices design allows you to work with several technologies independently on each service. If you have a service that would be easier if done in Javascript and another that would be more efficient if implemented in Go, the microservice structure allows you to work with many technologies at the same time.

There are other aspects to working with the microservice structure that we will not be able to discuss in this article. One thing you should keep in mind is that the main purpose of adopting a microservice structure is to be able to construct a scalable, efficient, and seamless application. We've identified some features; now let's look at design considerations in a microservice architecture.

Design Consideration in Microservice Architecture

In a microservice architecture, several design principles need to be considered before adopting a microservice structure. We have the following:

1. Programming Framework Flexibility: In a case where you have an application that needs to be structured and developed using microservices, and there is a need to achieve features in independent services using the best framework or technology, the microservice architecture allows you to freely achieve that because each service can be developed using its independent programming languages or framework.

2. Data Handling: Data handling is an important design aspect in microservices architecture because it affects how data is managed, saved, and exchanged across services. The application in a microservices architecture is made up of loosely linked, autonomous services that work together to offer functionality. Each service has its database and communicates with one another using well-defined APIs. To ensure the success of a microservices-based system, it is critical to pay close attention to how data is handled throughout different services.

3. Service communication and integration: The deployment and orchestration of services are critical components of microservices architecture. This method divides applications into loosely connected services, each of which runs independently and is responsible for specified tasks. Service deployment and orchestration that is efficient ensures the system's scalability, dependability, and agility.

4. Security and Access Control: Security and access control are key components of microservices design. Organizations that use microservices to construct scalable, adaptable, and distributed applications must handle several security issues to secure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their services and data. Security in the context of microservices involves a wide range of factors that span the application's whole lifespan, from design and development through deployment and maintenance. Authentication, secure communication, data protection, API security, vulnerability management, logging, microservices isolation, secure configuration management, third-party integration security, and security testing are among the issues.

Conclusion

We have been able to discuss microservice and its architecture in detail using examples and we have also explained how it plays a huge part when it comes to building a well-defined scalable application. This article is written to help give a better insight into microservice as a beginner transitioning into building applications in a microservice architecture. Keep an eye on the next article dropping soon. It will be covering a practical approach to microservice usage in an application.

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