Microservices: What's Next?

Microservices are very popular nowadays. The advantages of this architecture are undeniable, and many more companies are adopting it. Home Credit and possibly many more companies have already adopted this technology.

Advantages of Microservices

With this architecture, we clearly gain many advantages, especially for large and complex applications:

1. Scalability: Microservices allow individual components of an application to be scaled independently. This means you can allocate resources to the parts of the application that need them most, improving overall efficiency and performance.

2. Flexibility in Technology: Each microservice can be developed using different technologies and programming languages best suited for its specific task. This allows teams to choose the best tools for the job without being constrained by a single technology stack.

3. Improved Fault Isolation: In a microservices architecture, if one service fails, it doesn't necessarily bring down the entire system. This isolation helps in maintaining the stability and reliability of the application.

4. Faster Time to Market: Microservices enable smaller, more focused teams to work on different parts of the application simultaneously. This parallel development can lead to faster release cycles and quicker updates.

5. Easier Maintenance and Updates: Since microservices are smaller and more modular, they are easier to understand, maintain, and update. Changes to one service can be made and deployed independently of others, reducing the risk of introducing bugs into the system.

6. Enhanced DevOps and Continuous Delivery: Microservices support continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices. Automated testing and deployment pipelines can be set up for each service, leading to more efficient and reliable software delivery.

7. Better Alignment with Business Goals: Microservices can be aligned with specific business functions, making it easier to develop and deploy features that directly support business objectives. This alignment helps in creating more responsive and adaptive applications.

The world doesn't stop, and I think that Software Architecture won't stop either. So, have you ever thought about how technology will continue to evolve after Microservices? I think there are two possibilities that could happen:

1. Moving Towards Serverless Architecture

We can clearly see that applying microservices helps the development team in developing and maintaining the product, as the services that the team owns will be small enough to not be complex. Continuing with the approach, - smaller will be easier to control, more flexible in technology choices, easier to scale, etc. - We can think about Serverless Architecture. Here are some compelling reasons to encourage this transition:

1. Faster Development Cycles: Serverless architecture allows developers to deploy code without worrying about the underlying infrastructure, accelerating the development process and enabling quicker releases and faster time to market for new features and updates.

2. Enhanced Developer Productivity: By abstracting away server management, developers can concentrate on writing business logic and improving application functionality. This leads to increased productivity and more efficient use of development resources.

3. Cost Efficiency: Serverless operates on a pay-per-use model, meaning you only pay for the compute time you actually use. This can lead to significant cost savings compared to maintaining and provisioning fixed server capacity, while also reducing operational overhead as the cloud provider handles server maintenance.

But the nature of serverless architecture involves cold start latency. To deal with this issue, transitioning to a new framework that helps with faster startup times is important. This affects the learning curve of developers and requires changes in their internal processes.

2. Considering Modular Monolithic Architecture

However, if we approach it from another perspective, splitting services and functions into too many small, separate parts can lead to a system with many small services/functions connected through networking. The ease of developing and maintaining a small component then comes at the cost of the difficulty in managing the overall system.

A notable example is Amazon Prime Video. In March 2023, Amazon Prime Video decided to return to a monolithic architecture after finding that their microservices-based system for video quality analysis was not scaling effectively and was becoming too costly. By consolidating their services into a monolithic architecture, they were able to reduce costs and improve performance.

This example highlights that while microservices solve many problems associated with monolithic architectures, they are not always the perfect solution. In fact, a successful microservice implementation often comes from converting very large monolithic projects. Starting immediately with microservices can lead to mistakes when you don't have enough data to evaluate which modules will benefit from being converted to microservices. Therefore, beginning with a Modular Monolith allows you to develop a well-structured, manageable system that can be incrementally decomposed into microservices as you gather more insights and data about the application's requirements and performance.

By using Modular Monolithic, we can take advantage of the benefits of monolithic applications while still being ready to convert modules into microservices when necessary. This architecture allows us to more easily start a project and scale it up when needed. Here are some reasons to consider Modular Monolithic:

1. Simplified Management: Modular Monolithic architecture allows for easier management of the overall system by reducing the complexity associated with managing numerous microservices.

2. Cost Efficiency: By consolidating services, you can reduce the overhead costs associated with maintaining multiple microservices, such as networking and infrastructure costs.

3. Flexibility: This architecture provides the flexibility to convert modules into microservices when necessary, allowing you to scale parts of the application independently as the need arises.

4. Improved Performance: With fewer network calls between services, a Modular Monolithic architecture can offer better performance and lower latency compared to a highly distributed microservices system.

Conclusion:

Finally, to conclude, in the future after Microservices, we can consider continuing to develop features in a smaller, more convenient way for developers by adopting Serverless Architecture. Alternatively, we can think about consolidating services into a Modular Monolith, which can be beneficial for overall management and reducing operational costs.

Written by Mr. Phong Nguyen - Lifetime Onboarding Team Leader

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