In recent times, engineering teams have been growing at an interesting speed. This is mostly due to the level of complexities required to get products and services delivered to customers, writes Segun Olaiya –
Even more so, the exponential growth in hardware devices and the penetration of technology into virtually all spheres of human activities has contributed significantly.
As customers demand more sophisticated systems to solve their problems, companies need to respond with a different strategy, involving specific domain experts to solve particular problems that are part of the whole system.
This leads to organizations having multiple teams focused on a niche problem within the overall organization.
When you have multiple teams working closely together, they often step on each other’s toes. For example, at Shopify, a team focuses on the checkout experience for customers, while another team focuses on Payments—these two features are part of the same customer journey on any of Shopify’s 5.1+ million stores.
This is why microservices really exist—to solve a team problem. Organizations don’t want teams stepping on each other’s toes while working within the same system. Traditionally, an entire system is built within the same space—often called a Monolith.
At its essence, microservices architecture is a system design methodology where a single application is broken down into a collection of smaller, independently executable services. Each service focuses on a specific aspect of the business logic and operates autonomously, yet cooperatively with others.
In a microservices architecture, each service handles a single responsibility, enabling it to be implemented, tested, deployed, and scaled independently of the rest. Contrast this with the monolithic approach, where every part of the application is tightly coupled.
When making changes in a monolith, you risk affecting the entire system. Microservices, however, allow you to modify, update, or scale individual services without disturbing the broader ecosystem when implemented correctly.
A key advantage of microservices is their flexibility in technology choices. For instance, you could develop a payment service using Java to ensure high performance and reliability. Meanwhile, a user profile web service might be built in Node.js due to lighter performance needs. Unlike monolithic systems, which often confine you to a single technology stack, microservices enable you to select the optimal tool for each specific business requirement.
That said, microservices aren’t without their complications. As the number of services increases, managing them can quickly become complex. For effective communication between services, teams, and systems, technologies such as gRPC or message queues (such as RabbitMQ) are required.
Further, each service typically manages its own dependencies, so maintaining platform consistency can be difficult and introduce challenges.
Another point to consider is the infrastructure. Microservices require a more sophisticated setup compared to monolithic systems. For example, containerization tools like Docker and orchestration platforms like Kubernetes are commonly used to manage deployments and scaling. While these tools are powerful, they introduce their own learning curve and increase the complexity of system management.
Effective communication and coordination between teams are crucial in microservices architectures. Different teams often work on different services, meaning alignment is essential to ensure smooth integration.
Without proper communication, one team’s changes to an API could unintentionally disrupt another’s work due to an updated API contract. Therefore, microservices demand more collaborative effort compared to traditional monolithic designs.
However, the potential benefits of microservices outweigh their challenges. The ability to scale specific services rather than an entire monolithic system results in more efficient resource allocation.
This is especially beneficial for applications that face variable traffic or experience rapid growth. Scaling only the necessary services optimizes performance and manages resource costs effectively.
Microservices also promote continuous deployment. Since each service is independent, you can update individual services without bringing the entire application down.
This leads to quicker feature rollouts, bug fixes, or security patches, without the downtime and potential disruptions associated with updating a monolithic system.
A successful microservices implementation hinges on clear service boundaries. Each service should be self-contained, with its own database and logic, and it must interact with other services through well-defined APIs. Avoid allowing services to grow too intertwined, as this diminishes their independence and undermines the very principle of microservices architecture.
While microservices can offer numerous benefits, including scalability, flexibility, and rapid deployment, they are not a one-size-fits-all solution. For smaller applications or initial projects, a monolithic approach may be more efficient, especially when the team is relatively small. But as applications scale, the team grows, and the business logic becomes more complex, microservices can provide significant advantages.
In conclusion, if you’re exploring microservices for your team, keep in mind that they present a trade-off. The flexibility, scalability, and deployment speed they offer come with their own set of complexities. However, with careful design, the right tools, and effective team coordination, microservices can serve as a powerful framework to build systems ready for the future.
Writer’s Bio:
Segun Olaiya is a highly experienced Software Engineer with over 10 years of expertise spanning health-tech, fintech, e-commerce, and marketing-tech. He currently serves as a Senior Software Engineer at SOCi in San Diego, CA, and ShineOn in Florida, while also leading engineering initiatives at OnePipe, a fintech startup in Nigeria. Segun specializes in DevOps, Fullstack Development, and Technical Leadership, with a proven track record of building innovative solutions and integrating payment systems for major airlines. Passionate about technology, he also runs a software agency, Massive Brains Solutions, and loves to shares his insights.
