Difference Between Monolithic and Microservices Architecture?
What is a Monolithic and Microservice Architecture?
A monolithic architecture is a traditional software development model that uses one code base to perform multiple business functions. All the software components in a monolithic system are interdependent due to the data exchange mechanisms within the system. It’s restrictive and time-consuming to modify monolithic architecture as small changes impact large areas of the code base.
Microservices are an architectural approach that composes software into small independent components or services. Each service performs a single function and communicates with other services through a well-defined interface. Because they run independently, you can update, modify, deploy, or scale each service as required.
What are Microservices?
Microservices are an architectural and organizational approach to software development where software is composed of small independent services that communicate over well-defined APIs. These services are owned by small, self-contained teams.
Microservices architectures make applications easier to scale and faster to develop, enabling innovation and accelerating time-to-market for new features.
Monolithic vs. Microservices Architecture
With monolithic architectures, all processes are tightly coupled and run as a single service. This means that if one process of the application experiences a spike in demand, the entire architecture must be scaled. Adding or improving a monolithic application’s features becomes more complex as the code base grows. This complexity limits experimentation and makes it difficult to implement new ideas. Monolithic architectures add risk for application availability because many dependent and tightly coupled processes increase the impact of a single process failure.
With a microservices architecture, an application is built as independent components that run each application process as a service. These services communicate via a well-defined interface using lightweight APIs. Services are built for business capabilities and each service performs a single function. Because they are independently run, each service can be updated, deployed, and scaled to meet demand for specific functions of an application.
