The Many Business Benefits of Using Microservices Architecture

The use of microservices architecture in modern software development has proven to be beneficial for businesses when compared to traditional, monolithic architectures. Microservices are a highly scalable and flexible approach to software development in which applications are broken down into small, autonomous services that can be developed and deployed independently of each other.

The success of this approach comes down to lean processing and effective management of your resources. In a monolithic architecture, there is one giant system. In some ways, having a single system seems like it should simplify operations. But in practice, making even minor code changes to that monolithic application quickly become a headache.

The cumbersome nature of monolithic architecture can bog down release schedules, introduce bugs and security concerns, and divert human brainpower away from improving your business. Microservices platforms provide a better way.

Business Benefits of Microservices Architecture

The business benefits of a microservices platform aren’t just about the comparative ease of making changes and identifying problems in your microservices architecture. These platforms often come with special features such as clustering and redundancy of a single service. Another special feature of a microservices-leveraged platform—like CTG’s FoundationOne—is a message recorder service that listens to the message bus for anything it’s being instructed to automatically record. Smart platforms like these offer message players that act like DVRs, allowing users to play back messages at various speeds. This allows companies to examine the recorded data and identify issues in a single step, then debug problems across the system.

A solid application of microservices architecture in a platform also provides technology for creating a digital twin, or a virtual representation of a product or system that spans and evolves over the course of its lifecycle. These capabilities allow the team to modify that recording and then play it back as a simulation. With this technology, an organization can easily see how the system is going to operate under simulated conditions, so problems are averted before they occur.

Microservices Platforms: Flexible, Scalable, and Reliable

The advantages of leveraging microservices architecture are significant, but leaders often need to be convinced by concrete business benefits. The right technology can make all the difference.

FoundationOne, for example, is a data- and event-driven platform engineering framework that leverages microservices architecture to increase reliability, scalability, and flexibility. In this model, engineers typically deploy a message bus and support a cross-account or cross-region data replication, including parallel processing, resource state monitoring and alerting, and integration with heterogeneous systems.

This makes it easy for capable platforms to support high availability, disaster recovery, and scalability in a horizontal fashion, which is quite different from the challenges one would face if trying to implement all this in an API-driven architecture.

Moreover, smart microservices-based platforms like FoundationOne have the ability to run autonomously. For example, if an organization has a small system in one location, it can run autonomously, and then that system can quickly and easily be connected to the next level up. That kind of flexibility can make a big difference in terms of operational efficiency, agility, and performance.

The Microservices Revolution Awaits

To make the best use of microservices, companies should consider establishing data governance boards that manage the data that will be published and subscribed—and then enforce the service cohesiveness by testing in isolation. With proper data governance regarding a service’s purpose and the data it provides or consumes, a company can forge a robust system. A good governance board eliminates errors and confusion, reducing headaches and allowing the company to focus on its mission rather than tending to data-related emergencies.

The days of scrambling to fix problems in an unwieldy monolithic architecture are coming to a close. With the benefits of a microservices-leveraging platform and the features it provides, your organization can focus on business objectives instead of being bogged down in system changes that create headaches.

Now is the perfect time to start this transition, particularly because a microservices platform can be deployed alongside your current system without significant downtime or disruption. This simultaneous roll-out allows a company to continue seamlessly while upgrading a core component of operations. It’s a change that will make all the difference in the years ahead in terms of efficiency and profitability. Don’t wait to get started.

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