Before we delve deep into this topic, we’ll start by asking a relatively simple but loaded question. Are microservices the future of application software development? Well, judging from the growth experienced by companies that have embraced the use of microservices engineers, the answer to this question is YES. The microservices software market has seen steady growth in the recent past. In fact, according to a study by Market Research Future, the microservices market is expected to grow by 17% by 2023—at that time, it is expected to hit the $33 billion mark.
But what drives its adoption? What makes microservices the go-to software solution? Among the core reasons why companies shift to microservices is their frustration with their IT department. Indeed, microservices architecture offers them agility and speed that helps them undertake various tasks more efficiently. Additionally, the widespread adoption of cloud-based solutions also plays a significant role in the growing popularity of microservices.
As you can imagine, businesses that adopt the use of microservices accrue numerous benefits. But before we look into that, let’s first define what a microservice is.
What Are Microservices?
In the recent past, microservice architecture has grown into a hot topic in software development circles, and rightly so. But what is it? Microservices is an approach to creating an architecture that emphasizes the independence and modularity of each application. Rather than developing a single monolithic application, a microservice architecture breaks applications into smaller interconnected components that each have their own database and business logic, among other factors.
Applications are generally much simpler to develop and maintain when divided into smaller pieces that operate together. When using it, microservices engineers isolate software functionality into several independent modules individually tasked with performing a given function. These modules interact with each other through simple, universally accessible APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).
Among the features that applications built using microservices have to include:
- Having individual functions that align with business capabilities.
- They can be fragmented into several modular, loosely coupled components, each of which performs a unique function.
- They treat each function as an independent service that can be updated, changed, or deleted without interfering with the rest of the application.
- Microservices can be distributed across data centers and clouds.
Advantages of Working With Nearshore Microservices Engineers
Microservices are architectural models that facilitate the development of more efficient operational models. According to a recent IBM study of over 1,200 IT executives and developers, 87% of microservices users deem it as being a worthy expense. Below are among the core benefits that you can accrue from using it:
1. Microservices Improve Scalability
Microservices enable you to independently scale your services up or down with ease. Moreover, the cost of scaling is relatively lower compared to the monolithic system. As such, adding new features means adding discrete new microservices rather than redoing the entire application. This increases the stability and the speed at which the application is developed.
Besides that, since each microservice can be written using a different technology, microservices engineers can easily select and develop the most appropriate stack that best fits a given task within your organization. Also, the microservice architecture allows different services developed using different programming languages to coexist with each other. With microservices, you can increase the number of components in your system painlessly. Alternatively, divert resources from a microservice impacted by high demand.
Netflix is a good example of an entity that used microservices to overcome its scaling challenges. Sometime in 2008, Netflix had a three-day service failure due to an increase in demand on its servers. In a bid to remedy this situation, Netflix opted to sift from its monolithic application into a distributed system of microservices operating on Amazon AWS cloud servers. This resulted in the operations of Netflix shifting from activities like centralized release coordination, budget approvals, and multi-week hardware provisioning cycles to uninterrupted delivery and microservices engineering teams making independent decisions using self-service tools in a DevOps environment, thereby helping accelerate innovation.
2. They Provide Better Fault Isolation and Resilient Applications
When using a microservice architecture, the likelihood of the failure of one service impacting others is minimal because each microservice runs independently from others. Nonetheless, large sets of microservices architectures tend to rely on many dependencies. As such, microservices engineers need to put in place measures that insulate the application from a dependency failure related to the shutdown—on a high volume website, when a single back-end dependency becomes latent, it can lead to all the application resources becoming saturated within seconds.
Fortunately, developers can avert cascading failures by using features like circuit breakers which prevent server resource depletion whenever a calling service has to remain on standby for a failed service that refuses to respond.
Alternatively, developers can also avert cascading failures by avoiding Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) between microservices. So, how can you do this? You can refactor operations into a separate service and then redesign the containing operation to be completely asynchronous. Afterward, leverage the message bus to protect services from one another such that temporary failures, downtime, or redeployments.
3. Greater Business Agility and Support for DevOps
When using microservice-based architecture, experimenting with new features that may or may not be feasible does not pose much of a business risk compared to when using other applications. Additionally, the fact that you can experiment with new features and reverse the changes if they don’t work out means that businesses are more agile to respond to user feedback and emergent business demands without the threat of vendor or technology lock-in.
According to Josh Long (Spring Developer Advocate at Pivotal), the most crucial benefit that businesses accrue from microservices is agility—the ability to iterate on a focused piece of functionality and quickly see results.
Moreover, microservices also support DevOps. Given that businesses can rapidly create and redeploy new features, microservices users can see their feedback quickly. This promotes the spirit of collaboration between microservices engineers and developers. A result of which is the boosting of user satisfaction and retention.
4. Programming Language and Technology Agnostic for Microservices Engineers
When designing a microservice-based application, microservices engineers and developers can connect microservices programmed to run on any platform. They can also program microservices in any language. This provides more flexibility to use technologies and programming languages that best fit the skillset of your microservices engineering team and the needs of the project.
According to observations made by Lianping Chen, when writing about the microservices journey of Paddy Power – an online gambling site, the ability of teams to choose amongst different technologies to implement their service is useful, especially when adopting new technology. For instance, the team adopted the Scala language (a good option for creating low latency and high throughput applications) to create their own service without affecting other services that were using C++. Such dynamism wouldn’t be possible had the Paddy Power team been using a monolithic application.
Moreover, cloud-based microservices users can access this application from any internet-connected device. These include Mac, PC, iOS platforms, and Android.
5. Better Data Security and Compliance
Different features contained in microservices help them safeguard the sensitive data inside them. Nonetheless, whenever developers create data connections between the microservices, the information contained in the microservices becomes vulnerable to breaches. Fortunately, many developers use secure APIs to integrate microservices. A secure API protects the data it processes by ensuring that it is only accessible to authorized users, servers, and applications.
Suppose your microservices are managing sensitive financial, health, or any other kinds of sensitive information; a secure API grants developers full control over data accessibility by the larger application. As such, it makes it easier for users to attain compliance under GDPR, HIPAA, and other data security standards.
We’ve talked much about API and how it can help secure the data in your microservices. But how can you develop it? You can use Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) to create a secure API to support the security of your microservices architecture. One aspect of iPaaS that makes them ideal for creating secure APIs is their automatic API generation tools that empower you to create and publish secure APIs in a matter of minutes.
ParallelStaff Can Help You Outsource Nearshore Microservices Engineers
Now that you are conversant with the benefits of microservices application architecture, add microservices engineers to your software development team. However, getting the right talent within the country is not easy. Nearshore outsourcing can help you get the best team of microservices engineers. ParallelStaff can help you build parallel teams with unparalleled software development expertise. By using our nearshore outsourcing services, you’ll gain access to over 50,000 top-notch Latin American software engineers who are not only fluent in English but are dedicated to ensuring that your firm thrives. Schedule a call today and let us help you find the right talent for your firm.
- The Future of IT Staff Augmentation – Trends for the Next Decade - April 13, 2023
- Top 5 Qualities to Look for When Building a Software Development Team - April 7, 2023
- 5 Surprising Benefits of IT Staff Augmentation Services - March 23, 2023
