What are Microservices?
Microservices, also known as the microservices architecture, is an architectural style that structures an application as a collection of small autonomous services, modeled around a business domain.
Here are some key characteristics of the microservices architecture:
1. Single Responsibility: Each microservice should be small and have a single responsibility, i.e., it should do one thing well.
2. Independence: Each service should be able to run independently of the others. This allows each service to be developed, deployed, updated, and scaled independently.
3. Decentralized: Microservices can be developed using different languages and technologies based on the requirements of the service. This is possible because each service is independent and communicates with others through APIs.
4. Fault Isolation: In a monolithic architecture, if a single component of the application fails, it can lead to the failure of the entire application. But in a microservices architecture, if a single service fails, only that service is affected. The other services continue to function.
5. Data Store Per Service: Each microservice can have its own separate database, which means that the database schema of one service can be different from another. This further promotes the independence of each service.
6. Communication:Services communicate with each other through well-defined APIs and protocols, typically HTTP/REST with JSON or gRPC with Protobuf.
The microservices architecture style is often contrasted with the monolithic architecture style, where an application is built as a single unit. Microservices offer several benefits over monolithic architectures, like flexibility in choosing technology stack for different services, independent scaling, and faster deployments, but they also introduce additional complexities, such as managing inter-service communication and handling distributed data.
