I advocate open and connected tech to ensure future proof System Integrators (SI's) and start-up and to propel current and future digital experiences. Collectively, the voices of its members represent the next generation of technology and business. I recommend companies to adopt the MACH principles and embrace the modern and agile ecosystem. The goal is to carve-up the monolithic platforms and build API-first.
Microservices architectures are an important software trend and one that can have profound implications on not only enterprise IT, but the digital transformation of entire businesses. But what are the differences between a microservices architecture and a monolithic architecture? And, more importantly, as tech giants such as Netflix, Google, and Amazon move towards microservices architecture — what are the benefits of microservices architectures?
Monolithic architecture:
First, let’s compare microservices vs monolithic architecture. A monolithic application is built as a single unit. Enterprise applications are built in three parts:
This is what makes a monolith architecture monolith — it is a single logical executable. To make any changes to the system, a developer must build and deploy an updated version of the server-side application.
Microservices architecture:
In contrast to a monolithic architecture, microservices’ capabilities are expressed formally with business-oriented APIs. They encapsulate a core business capability and the implementation of the service — which may involve integrations with systems of record — is completely hidden as the interface is defined purely in business terms.
The positioning of services as valuable assets to the business implicitly promotes them as adaptable for use in multiple contexts. The same service can be reused in more than one business process or over different business channels or digital touchpoints.
Dependencies between services and their consumers are minimized by applying the principle of loose coupling. By standardizing on contracts expressed through business-oriented APIs, consumers are not impacted by changes in the implementation of the service. This allows service owners to change the implementation and modify the systems of record or service compositions — which may lie behind the interface and replace them without any downstream impact.
| Monolithic | Microservice |
|---|---|
Traditional software development processes (waterfall, agile, etc) usually result in relatively large teams working on a single, monolithic deployment artifact. Project managers, developers, and operational staff can reach varying degrees of success with these models, releasing application candidates that can be verified by the business, particularly as they gain experience using a particular software and deployment stack. There are, however, some lurking issues traditional approaches |
A microservice architecture — in concert with cloud deployment technologies, API management, and integration technologies — provides a different approach to software development. The monolith is instead disassembled into a set of independent services that are developed, deployed and maintained separately. This has the following advantages |
| Monolithic applications can evolve into a “big ball of mud” — a situation where no single developer (or group of developers) understands the entirety of the application | Services are encouraged to be small, ideally built by a handful of developers |
| Limited reuse is realized across monolithic applications | Services can be consumed and reused by other services and applications without direct coupling through language bindings or shared libraries |
| Scaling monolithic applications can often be a challenge | Services exist as independent deployment artifacts and can be scaled independently of other services |
| It’s difficult to achieve operational agility in the repeated deployment of monolithic application artifacts. | Services that are developed discretely enable developers to use the appropriate development framework for the task at hand. |
| By definition, monolithic applications are implemented using a single development stack (ie, JEE or .NET), which can limit the availability of “the right tool for the job.” | Services communicate with each other over well-defined APIs, often using lightweight protocols such as HTTP/REST or messaging queues, enabling interoperability and reducing dependencies on specific technologies or platforms. |
The tradeoff of this flexibility is complexity. Managing a multitude of distributed services at scale is difficult for two main reasons:
Traditional monolithic platforms restrict the agility and the innovation of your digital commerce platform. Scale your platform to mach speed with the best-of-breed Microservices, APIs, Cloud-native, and Headless (MACH) technology, for next-generation digital experiences. MACH technologies enable a composable enterprise where each component is plug-and-play, scalable, and replaceable.
Swift Implementation: The MACH enterprise has a decentralized development process. Different development teams can collaborate to get you to market faster. And the decreased inter-dependency of components ensures that the platform always remains robust to platform-wide downtimes.
Customisations Simplified: MACH enterprises work with decoupled frontend and backend systems. Personalisations and customisations are easy and quick. The platform remains simple and robust, even with increased business capabilities and different development teams working on the system over the years.
Effortless Scaling: Customers expect more and more from your e-commerce platform. MACH’s cloud-native principles allow you to be nimble, meet new expectations, and scale your e-commerce presence as quickly as your business grows. Adopting microservices ensures that high frontend traffic does not impact backend operations.
Faster Updates: In the MACH enterprise, updates affect only individual components and do not require platform-wide testing. This coupled with the API-driven approach ensures that updates are quick and breezy, with no risk of crashes.
Get only what you need: No more paying for features and functionality your business doesn’t require. In the MACH enterprise, each component serves a specific business function. This creates a leaner and more efficient technology stack.
Get best-in-breed solutions: Pick and choose the service provider that specializes in exactly what you need. MACH’s vendor-agnostic approach allows you to leverage services that match your exact business needs.