How Can Microservices Architecture Help Tech Companies Tackle Scalability Challenges?
- Justice Nanhou
- Feb 13
- 10 min read
The digital world is evolving at a breakneck pace. Technology has moved towards a micro-digital world where microservices are emphasized, and small events are the center of focus. Let’s learn what microservices are beforehand.
What Does Microservices Architecture Mean?
It’s a software design approach in which applications are built with an assortment of small, independent, and responsible services to perform business competence. These micro-responsible services communicate through well-defined APIs with each other and allow independent development, scaling, and deployment of each service inside a larger performing system.
Fashionable Understanding
Let’s understand microservices. These are independent, developing, and deploying smaller application systems that perform specific business tasks and communicate within a more extensive system. Such microservices are complex and distributed on a wide scale, which raises broader complexity in distributed systems and cannot be easily debugged. Furthermore, the inter-communication leads to a complex system with additional expense in designing APIs and raises scalability issues.
Tech companies such that are growing and initiating microservice architecture can adapt and bring forward more options and solutions, but solving scalability to profit on a larger and smaller scale remains a significant challenge that has to be addressed. But before we get specific about new tech companies facing such difficulties, let’s break down and understand what is underneath the whole system.
Monolithic Vs. Microservices Architecture
The monolithic architecture approach refers to a single unified system containing one codebase and unifying all tasks under one bigger umbrella. On the other hand, the microservice architecture approach does the opposite of the monolithic approach. In the bigger picture, the mother system of microservice architecture is broken down into smaller and independent services as Netflix to perform particular tasks, specializing in that task, communicating, and correlating on independent levels.
The monolithic approach is a traditional software method characterized by a dependent data exchange system, which limits modifications, requires a significant amount of time, and where minor changes can have widespread effects. In contrast, the microservice approach is contemporary and dynamic, made up of independent applications with well-defined interfaces. It allows for easy modification and updating of individual applications as needed, without affecting other interconnected systems or causing the widespread impact that can occur with the monolithic approach.
Let’s discuss what limitations made the monolithic approach evolve into a microservices approach.
Limitations of Traditional Architectures
The evolution of digital technology is a benchmark that may bring forward evolving processes in the digital world. We understand that everything evolves into new dimensions, and engineers may face several obstacles that may have hidden opportunities, just like traditional architectures, which evolved into a new microservice era. Let’s discuss the limitations that kept them evolving into new dimensions of modern architecture.
Slower Architectures
In earlier stages, the monolithic approach was the base ground in that particular timeframe, during which huge companies like Amazon had evolved. During the course, growing demands made it seriously slow, raising issues such as compatibility and upgrading. Each function was getting more serious and more broad, which made development more complex and slower. What did they do? They evolved and induced better and faster architecture.
Inaccessible and Not Scalable
When you have a single coded system that needs upscaling, the system’s ability to perform, the process performance, has to handle the massive amount of work or data and a vast amount of demand to handle. Take a real life example of Microsoft 365 (office suite), that takes a considerable time to update. Monolithic architecture takes a considerable amount of time. It impacts the scalability of each function and resource, which, as a result, impacts negatively. Monolithic architecture faces scalability, which turned into the episodic and eventual need for interconnected but scattered microservices to work independently and the ability to scale.
Reliable Unreliable
The monolithic architecture faces a malfunction episode when a small application or module fails to perform. The whole system gets compromised and unreliable, which badly affects commercial aspects and impacts the performance process. If Shopify (Ecommerce SAAS application), faces a malfunction in a smaller sub-application, it may impact the whole SAAS application working. Which also tends to upgrade on slower scales and causes lethargy. Each function and application needs to be performed on a smoother and more reliable scale that does not impact the whole system.
Expensive Adaptation and Flexibility
The monolithic architecture approach is unreliable due to its lower capacity to upgrade scales, which becomes expensive. A small application as part of a larger system works slower, and coping with the increasing demands, making it updatable and adaptive to new horizons, becomes expensive and cost-increasing. Similarly, the flexibility to adapt to new processes is becoming practically impractical.
The monolithic architecture approach sustains huge costs in adapting and being flexible to new structural episodes and working processes. Even huge costs can be incurred if updating and being flexible to growing needs is needed. Due to multiple reasons posed by monolithic architecture, a flexible, adaptable, reliable, scalable, and faster architecture was required, resulting from microservices architecture. Let’s go through the benefits of microservices to enlighten the bigger picture.
Microservices Benefits
An umbrella system that has multiple and independent microservices. The architectural method where each application works independently is how modern technologies work. Some of the benefits that can be discussed include;
Faster Applications
When it comes to singular application functions, under a large system, microservice applications work faster than monolithic architecture. Such as eBay, that has a significant Ecommerce platform but works much faster comparatively. If a company has to add new features, upgrading them becomes much faster, which can increase the load time as well. Whereas, monolithic architecture has all applications combined, and they work relatively slower. In a nutshell, all independent microservices perform much faster than monolithic systems. Similarly, microservices can be easily updated in reduced time, perform processes increasingly better, and do not affect the entire larger system.
Flexibility and Adaptation
Microservices architecture comprises multiple independent applications to run; each service is easily deployed without affecting other services, which makes the architecture more flexible. Since multiple occurrences occur with growing challenges, solving those issues becomes relatively easy, which makes it more adaptable to new challenges and changes.
Scalability
As the independent applications in the architecture run separately, they are easy to add, remove, and update. They do not disturb the entire or other microservice application, which is beneficial and can be scaled easily. For example, in an e-commerce environment, if demand increases due to seasonal influence, more resources can independently be deployed to ensure coping with seasonal influence.
Separating Imperfections
It’s easy to separate imperfections when running microservices because they perform functions separately. In monolithic architecture, one service failure or imperfection means a collapse in the entire system due to its dependent nature, but microservices work entirely differently. For example, if Microsoft is facing a huge number of unexpected Windows crashes or 365 office suite, that means they need to upgrade it through updates or improve it with a better version.
Easily Programmable
Microservice applications are independent in nature, so they can be programmed in any or better coding language. This is a benefit for developers who can sort out the application and develop it in an existing or hired coding language. Such a development brings more advantages and options, which are beneficial and better used. Such is the case of IMDB & AWS, that is easily and individually programmable, apart from Amazon entire business application.
Data is Secured
Microservices secure the data even if the application crashes. User-input sensitive data is secured and only available to the specified user in any instance. This is helpful in determining the financial implications of data and user-input data. Furthermore, such a benefit helps in compliance related to data security.
Personalized Product Recommendation
In a microservices architecture system, a personalized product recommendation in an e-commerce business platform is associated with a dedicated microservice that influences user-stored data and performance. It tailors product personalization suggestions to the individual and specific user. It leads to analytical changes and allows independent development, scaling, and updates of the recommendation service system. Take examples of Printify, Societ6, and Zazzle personalized product methods in print on demand business applications. It also smoothly communicates with other independent microservices.
Design Principles
Microservices design principles are unique because big applications wouldn’t want to have a crash scenario in any instance. But, at the same time, it is a harsh reality that nothing is perfect and remains perfect unless perfect design principles have been devised, which is evidently impossible. Microservices design principles focus on service independence, communication patterns, flexibility, scalability, monitoring and maintenance, load balancing, and constant availability. Take examples of IMDB, AWS, and Netflix that are evident in the case of Microservices Architecture of Amazon. But the most prominent principles that differentiate it from monolith are;
Service Independence
Microservices architectures are primarily based on independent service applications that can be isolated in any instance. They have dedicated resources with business logic and a separate database, which keeps them functioning in case a malfunction occurs. Take examples of IMDB, AWS, and Netflix that are apparent in the case of Microservices Architecture of Amazon Such service independence ensures a fully developed and deployed decentralized and interconnected application.
Communication Patterns
Because of independence in nature, a communication pattern design has to be devised to be connected within the entire system. The programming language can be different, but intercommunication is made possible through API accretion. The requirement for strong APIs between different microservices is the focus principle for having a well-defined communication pattern.
Technology Stack
It’s mandatory to have the best tool collection in the technology stack to build, preserve, and perform the microservices architecture at an optimum level. There could be many variants available that function depending on the nature of business logic and need.
Recommended Frameworks
The best choice depends on the need to ensure optimal performance. Here are some recommended frameworks detailed, depending on influencing dynamics such as programming language preferences, project complexity, and performance needs. Such recommended frameworks include Spring Boot, Micronaut, Ballerina, Golang, and Eclipse Vert. X, Quarkus, and AxonIQ.
Language and Platform Considerations
If language and platform are considered and choices are made for microservices architecture, some of the objectives that are required to achieve include; performance needs, development needs, scalability needs, team skills, containerization, testing and deploying ability, API aggregation, maintenance, security, and cost. Some of the best languages to build microservices architecture include Python, Typescript, Java, GoLang, and C++.
Deployment Strategies
A deployment strategy is a pattern adapted to deploy software modules to update and modify. It enables smooth, easy software deployments to modify microservices. Some major aspects of microservices architecture deployment require containerization and Kubernetes integration, apart from Canary deployment and Blue-Green Deployment.
The containerization strategy and Kubernetes integration deploy individual microservices within a distributed system by packaging each service. This strategy allows microservice management, deployment across different environments, and scaling. In contrast, Kubernetes integration induces automated scaling, management, and service discovery.
Scalability Patterns
Some scalable patterns, such as vertical and horizontal, are used while exploring the capabilities of the large-scale microservices architecture and efficiently managing the whole distributed system, workload, and user demand. These scalability patterns enable microservices architecture to be responsive and reliable.
Horizontal Scaling
Large-scale microservices architecture would need efficient resource allocation, which leads to handling increased loads in situations where instances or occurrences have increased. These workloads are further distributed to these instances to enhance reliability and performance, reduce faulty situations, and meet the increasing demand. The best example for Horizontal Scaling can be seen in the case of Amazon ecommerce platform.
Dynamic Resource Allocation
Microservices architecture is large distributed systems that need efficient resource allocation, which enhances and improves scalability patterns, orchestration tools, and monitoring. If resource allocation to a significant microservices architecture is dynamic, it will resolve issues such as cost, unavailability during peak hours, monitoring, and low performance.
Monitoring And Observability
Once a microservices architecture is in place, challenges can come from any direction. Monitoring helps to analyze data or irregularities that may hinder a microservice application. The performance of the key metric indicators enables you to understand the observability of the application or entire system. The significant difference in discrete data-based processes is that monitoring collects data and generates data-based reports. On the other hand, observability looks closely at these distributed data collected through monitoring and inferring the cause of faults. The best real life example of monitoring and observability can be seen from eBay. However, both have typical objectivity in maintaining a healthy, supportive, and performance-based system, which also drives toward distributed traces and optimization of the performance.
Distributed Traces
While monitoring the microservices architecture processes, different services get track requests, where a track to follow the path and the request to follow are presented. Distributed traces help to see the data flow and direct it towards issues. In easy terms, it is a method to monitor and follow the path of the user request.
Performance Optimization
While running a microservices architecture, performance key indicators help monitor bottlenecks within individual services. These performance indicators also help solve inter-service communication and the overall design of the system. Microservices architecture is based on agility and responsiveness and reduces poor performances in business logic. Therefore, the entire system needs strategies, tools, techniques, KPIs, scalability metrics, reliability, availability, resources, and more to optimize the performance. You can understand performance optimization by studying Netflix’s Microservices transformation. The best practices developers follow for overall performance optimization include; following code optimization, containerization, orchestration, and user-responsive techniques.
Case Studies
Microservices architecture is a modern solution, a gateway to responsive solutions for multiple businesses, as we can see in the case of cloud-based solutions provided by many companies. Giant platforms such as Amazon, Etsy, Spotify, eBay, Coca-Cola, Netflix, and SoundCloud are the best examples of our generation. These are the successful microservice implementations that we could see, simulate, and pursue for business ventures.
Netflix
Amazon launched AWS as a giant cloud-based web service that enabled Netflix to deploy thousands of servers and terabytes of data storage within minutes. The problem area was storing thousands of visual and moving pictures that acquire multi-terabytes of data and live streaming to millions globally. Netflix’s architecture is based on AWS. Amazon’s individual microservice is the best-case study for measuring, performing without interruption, and accessing without latency.
Conclusion
“A Few Lessons Learned from The Past Decade”
During the session, we gained an understanding of a fair comparison between monolithic and microservices architecture approaches. It also covered the functionality and capabilities of microservices architecture. Over the years, perhaps a decade, we've realized that there is no such thing as perfection, only improved versions. However, when discussing microservices architecture, it aids in system development and automation, faster API integration and release, containerization, decentralization, productivity, reduced latency issues, availability, reliability, cache challenges, cloud-based systems, alleviated overloaded databases, code management issues, and responsive microservices solutions.
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