What are microservices?

Instead of creating a monolithic application with all functionality contained in a single, tightly connected codebase, microservices divide the system into smaller, loosely coupled components. Each service functions as its own mini-application, can be developed and deployed independently, and may use different programming languages or frameworks.

How do microservices work?

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Building microservices starts with carefully planning the system to identify distinct subtasks, then developing independent applications to handle each one. These applications interact through lightweight messaging systems that transfer data between services.

The tasks handled by a microservice can be very small and specific. For example, calculating the standard deviation of a dataset or counting the number of words in a text. Each service contributes its result to the overall functionality of the system.

There are no strict rules for building microservices, which gives developers flexibility in choosing programming languages, frameworks, and deployment environments. The choice of technology usually depends on requirements, and when performance and low latency are critical, in-memory processing engines are often used.

Are microservices still relevant?

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Yes. Microservices continue to play a central role in modern software development because they support scalability, flexibility, and faster release cycles. Many organizations use them to build cloud-native applications, enable agile teams, and integrate new technologies such as AI and IoT.

The market outlook confirms their importance. The global cloud microservices market was valued at US$2.0 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach US$11.3 billion by 2034, with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.1%. This strong growth indicates that microservices are not a short-lived trend but a lasting foundation for digital transformation.

When to use microservices?

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Microservices are a strong choice when applications grow too complex for a single codebase, or when flexibility, scalability, and reliability are critical.

Here are the best scenarios:

1. Your system is large and evolving
The application has many domains and teams, and a single codebase is slowing down development and releases.

2. You require independent scaling
Some parts face spikes (search, checkout, ingestion) and must scale without over-provisioning the whole app.

3. You need faster, safer releases
Teams must ship features independently, roll back quickly, and deploy without coordinating a full-app release.

4. You have multiple autonomous teams
Teams own clear domains, need tech choice freedom, and work in parallel with minimal cross-team blocking.

5. You must improve resilience
Failure in one component should not take down the entire system; you need clear fault isolation and graceful degradation.

6. You face heterogeneous requirements
Certain components demand unique stacks, libraries, runtimes, or hardware that do not fit a one-size-fits-all platform.

7. You plan for long-term agility
Domains will be added, split, or retired over time; you want bounded contexts that can evolve independently.

But before you choose microservices, make sure you have:

• Solid domain boundaries (DDD or similar).
• Automated testing, CI/CD, and observability (tracing, metrics, logs).
• A lightweight communication style (usually HTTP or messaging with clear contracts).
• Operational maturity for service discovery, API versioning, and incident response.

If your app is small, stable, or handled by a single team, start monolithic and modular. Move to microservices when the pain points above become real.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of microservices?

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Microservices bring many benefits to modern software development, but they also introduce challenges that organizations must be ready to handle.

✅ Advantages are:

• Agility – Small, independent teams own their services and work within a clearly defined context. This autonomy shortens development cycles and boosts overall productivity.
• Flexible scaling – Each service can be scaled independently to meet demand, making infrastructure usage more efficient and allowing teams to accurately measure the cost of specific features.
• Easy deployment – Microservices support continuous integration and delivery. Teams can experiment, release updates quickly, and roll back changes if necessary, which accelerates time-to-market.
• Technological freedom – Teams can choose the best tools, frameworks, and programming languages for their service instead of being locked into a single stack.
• Reusable code – Services are modular and can be reused as building blocks for other features, reducing duplication and speeding up development.
• Resilience – Failures are contained within individual services. Instead of crashing the whole application, functionality can degrade gracefully, improving overall reliability.

❌ Disadvantages are:

• Operational complexity – Managing many small services is inherently more complex than handling a single monolith. Teams must coordinate interdependencies, handle service discovery, and deal with operational overhead. For organizations looking for an alternative approach to reduce this complexity, exploring cell-based architecture can be a useful next step.
• Increased security risks – With many independent services exposed over the network, the attack surface increases. Strong security practices are required to protect both individual services and the system as a whole.
• Communication challenges – Services may use different technologies, which complicates communication and integration. Teams must ensure smooth data exchange and address latency or compatibility issues.
• Higher costs – Each service often requires its own infrastructure, monitoring, and deployment pipeline. This increases operational costs, as well as the effort needed to coordinate across teams.