Whether finding a plumber or somewhere to eat lunch, the first thing we do is go online. In the modern world, it’s almost essential that a business has a digital presence, and not only that— it’s critical that this presence isn’t stagnant.
The world is rapidly moving, with customers’ needs developing by the second. Your business needs to change with them; otherwise, you risk becoming a dinosaur.
Microservices in Enterprises
For large enterprises, microservices are becoming increasingly important, as digital solutions need to power not only customer-facing services but streamline and automate internal processes as well. This is no longer a territory reserved for tech companies alone; even traditional businesses need to optimize their internal automation to grow and develop.
However, finding the right solution can be a challenge. You need flexible software that keeps up to date with the latest changes in your business and adapts to the needs of your customers.
One of the latest solutions of this kind on the market is microservices. In this article, we’ll tell you more about what they are, how they can improve digital business processes, and help you decide if they are a suitable tool for you.
What Are Microservices?
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of it, we first need to understand the architecture of traditional software solutions. By this, we mean products that are composed of various functional components combined into one package to work together.
While efficient, it is a pretty heavy infrastructure. It takes a long time to deploy and present challenges when you seek to change one or more elements of the system.
On the other hand, the microservices architecture combines individual software features built in isolation. They communicate with each other via HTTP REST or Message Bus services to make the complete solution work.
On the surface, this microservices-based architecture may not seem that different from the traditional one. However, in the background, its operation could not be more different.
The Pros and Cons of Microservices
To help you get a better grip on what microservices do, let’s take a closer look at their key benefits and challenges.
The Pros
- They cut time to market – In terms of size, microservices are smaller than traditional software solutions. This makes them easier to deploy (which cuts the time to market), speed up development, and help you address your company’s actual needs timely.
- They grow with you – As isolated modules, microservices are easily editable. So, as your business progresses, you can amend and change individual elements of your digital solutions to reflect these changes without a complete makeover. This results in more flexibility.
- They work faster and in-sync – Microservices allow for autonomous development within your project. Whether you’re a non-IT business or a software development company, microservices enable you to delegate different elements of your system to separate teams, allowing them to complete tasks in sync.
- They keep components independent – Even if one element of your microservices fails, this doesn’t mean it’s a game over for your software. The separated nature of the structure means issues can be fixed independently. Though of course, it depends on which part of the structure is affected.
- They let you scale with ease – Think of microservices like Lego: at first, they are singular blocks, but together they can become a plane, a boat, or a mansion. The autonomous nature of microservices means that you can combine different elements to build your project.
The Cons
- They are not for everyone – While microservices have a lot of advantages, they are not a one-size-fits-all solution for any project. Some microservices can only operate on a solid backend.
- Your team needs to be agile – Creating a microservices project by nature demands an agile mindset, and this may mean involving such processes as DevOps. Even though it doesn’t guarantee successful deployment of microservices by default, this lays the necessary groundwork.
- Communication issues – As autonomous elements, microservices rely heavily on communication. This means the team should carefully monitor the functions that support microservices––message processing, synchronization, networks, etc.––to ensure they work to the required capacity.
- New tech hiccups – Microservices are quite a new technology, meaning that as developers and engineers learn the ins and outs of this solution, there might be some hiccups. However, as these specialists discover more, system issues will become less.
Microservices and Future Solutions
Market leaders such as Netflix, Amazon, and Twitter are already employing the microservices architecture in their online solutions. This has allowed them to introduce changes and updates into what otherwise may entail a complex code overhaul. Meaning that they are able to upload new products, videos, and features without causing a major re-release on their platforms.
Such a format breaks down complicated structures into easy-to-operate digital modules. With tech giants among their early adopters, it might be easy to think that this technology is only suitable for big brands and world-name companies. But is the microservice architecture just for big business?
Of course not! Companies of any size can employ elements of the microservices architecture in their software development. That said, it is true that microservices require a level of proficiency not readily available at every company.
However, this is easily remedied by engaging the services of reliable software developers, such as Iflexion, who have substantial experience in building microservices into enterprise-grade software.
How do I decide if microservices architecture
is suitable for my company?
While the answer to this question will be as varied as the needs of your company, these are some key points to consider:
- Is your company or platform rapidly evolving?
- Do you regularly need to update elements of your website or internal system?
- Is your company prepared for the complexity of microservices?
If you’ve answered yes to one or more of these questions, microservices may be the solution for you.
