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Product owners usually consider transitioning to a microservices architecture when they start running into issues. It could be challenges with scalability or maintenance (and everything in between). But is the move to a suite of modular services worth it?
What makes a microservices architecture so popular and is it all just hocus pocus? We’ve narrowed down our main reasons why a microservices architecture is hands down, the superior choice.
Ease of Scaling Up
Most startups never take scalability into account when they’re just starting out. They never thought that far ahead – which makes when you’re still in the growth phase. During the first few years, a monolithic architecture seemingly works well because it’s cheaper and requires fewer specialists on board.
However, once the product is launched into the market and becomes more complex, the team will start running into a range of issues.
This is exactly the challenge Netflix ran into when their user base exponentially grew up and they had to scale up accordingly. Because they were dealing with a traditional monolithic architecture, their team needed hours and days to increase the capability of data centers.
Once they migrated to a microservice architecture and the cloud, they could easily process hundreds of server instances to simultaneously while meeting the increased demand for services. This allowed the team to increase and decrease capacity in mere minutes. Today, the streaming giant has over 1000 microservices, each managing a separate component of their services.
You Can Use Different Languages, Tools, and Vendors
Developers need access to an array of new languages to improve their product features. In a typical monolithic environment, while you may have access to an array of tools on the front and back end, you are typically locked- in to the technology or vendor chosen for the primary architecture of the application.
For instance, if the backend is run using PHP, it becomes increasingly difficult to use a Node.js service without running into additional complexity and maintenance issues.
With microservices, you can use the right tool for the right job. This means that Java can be used for natural language processing while Rust can be used for high-velocity data processing. Your services are now isolated from each other and you can freely use the appropriate tool for the job. This ensures that you can take into account the skills and experience of your developers before selecting the most appropriate language.
Another, and possibly, more justifiable benefit of using microservice solutions is how your services interact with your application. There is no need for the application to know what is running behind the service.
Amazon used a microservice architecture to move from its three-layer team structure (database, UI, and engineering teams) to smaller, more efficient cross-functional teams that are built based on their immediate requirements. The small teams are responsible for one service and running it to its full lifetime.
Flexibility of Components
Monolithic solutions are rigid and are difficult to improve. This quickly becomes a problem when you have to fix bugs and errors in the center. Changing a small thing in the system can cause a ripple effect throughout the product.
This is the primary reason why the Guardian felt necessary to move from a monolithic to a microservice architecture. The new microservice architecture allowed their engineers to add, replace, and remove different components without changing the entire structure since they all worked independently.
Today, the Guardian can easily add and remove different sections of their website as and when needed. This feature allowed them to quickly remove an event when it was over without compromising the site’s main functionality.
Independently Deployable
The migration to microservices architecture involves breaking up the application function into smaller individual units that are discovered and accessed at runtime, either on HTTP or an IP/Socket protocol using RESTful APIs.
Protocols should be lightweight and services should have a small granularity, thereby creating a smaller surface area for change. Features and functions can then be added to the system easily, at any time. With a smaller surface area, you no longer need to redeploy entire applications as required by a monolithic application. You should be able to deploy single or multiple distinct applications independently.
Reduce Response Downtime
For e-commerce businesses with thousands of products and pages, their downtime response plays a crucial role in their success. When Walmart, a giant in the retailing space, reached millions of page views per minute, their engineers knew that the aging monolithic architecture would be unable to sustain further growth. Walmart swiftly moved from their monolithic architecture to microservices in 2012.
The results speak for themselves. Their downtime response was significantly reduced and Walmart managed to save 50% of their operating expenditures when they stopped relying on expensive hardware on-site and migrated to virtual servers. More importantly, this translated into a 20% higher conversion rate and they generated more mobile orders (because their app and website loaded much faster on mobile following the transition to Microservices).
Microservice Based Applications Are Not Without Challenges
While we’re all for microservice applications, it is worth considering a few challenges that you’ll run into.
Increased Application Complexity
Since you’ll now be dealing with many small applications instead of one, it could be challenging for your team to stay on top of all of them. Your documentation will have to cover the new components as well as their integration points. Every effort must be made to make sure all teams are aware of the smaller components powering the product.
Everyone Must be on the Same Page
All developers and stakeholders in the product must be on the same page. You have to make sure everyone on the team believes that microservices are the way to go. Migration is going to be a highly involved process and there may be a few delays in rolling out new features. Maintenance will prove difficult at first because previously fixed bugs will be reintroduced into the application.
There will be greater emphasis on regression testing. In other words, migrating to microservice solutions require a complete shift of thinking. Many people probably won’t appreciate the change. Make sure your team and stakeholders are aware of the challenges involved in moving.
Bottom Line: Microservice Solutions Are Worth the Extra Hassle
Once you get over the initial challenges involved and your team gets well-adjusted to the new microservices architecture, it’s smooth sailing from here on out. The benefits will become even more apparent when you scale up and continue to deliver value to your customers.
Aside from scaling up and having more control over individual components, microservices make you more nimble. If one small service goes down, the whole system won’t come to a screeching halt.
You’ll maximize product productivity and avoid the slowdowns usually associated with monolithic applications
If you have any more questions about moving to a microservice architecture, do get in touch with us to help you come up with a solution.
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