Modernize Architecture with Microservices Process Orchestration

[Aklima@416]

Over the last decade, application architecture has evolved. We started with monolithic architecture, but it didn’t meet the needs of real-world applications. Consumers demanded an answer to domain-driven design, infrastructure automation, distributed teams, continuous delivery, and continuous integration (CD/CI).

The response of evolution has produced the microservices architecture. As a result, microservices are considered as the successor of API application development.

What is microservices architecture?
Microservices architecture describes the approach of designing single software applications as a matrix of services that can be isolated for development and deployment. Each service can run its processes independently and communicate with other applications and systems as a standalone entity. In addition, microservices architecture is considered the ideal environment for automated deployment and process orchestration.

Each microservice would function as an independent component and would be responsible for a designated function. Furthermore, the services are distributed, secured, and synchronized. The desired scenario is that each element interacts with the other components to ensure a comprehensive understanding and support of all network activities. It is common to divide each project team into smaller teams to manage a single microservice in terms of development.

Why are microservices the preferred architecture for process orchestration?
Many organizations, whose applications were previously based on a monolithic architecture, are now moving to microservices precisely because the benefits of a microservices architecture have already been proven and realized by other players in the global field.

Monolithic architecture seems outdated in the always-on world. A microservices architecture offers better scalability and integration with third-party services compared to a monolithic architecture. Microservices ecosystems enable concurrency, which is a crucial aspect of a scalable application. In terms of process orchestration, each transaction in a process is handled by a separate microservice. If one microservice fails, it does not disrupt the entire process.

In the monolithic architecture style, there are many pet owner mailing list interdependencies; this is not the case in microservices architecture. Unintentional failures of services will not propagate to other services. Since microservices architecture is modular in nature, it ensures isolation of each service and resilience and continuity of service management processes.

Enterprises can use microservices architecture to orchestrate processes based on their priorities. Microservices are much more flexible than the monolithic style. Since each microservice is a separate entity, teams can develop the service based on their current preferences. Additionally, every interaction between microservices is handled with fluid APIs that produce deployment flexibility. Teams are not directly dependent on each other. Each microservice can be used in any way according to the current need and can be modified without affecting other microservices.

There are two main types of communication:

Asynchronous: An asynchronous call can be made from a thread, but it is not required. Additionally, asynchronous calls do not prevent the program from accessing code execution. When an asynchronous call returns from an event, the call returns to the callback function.
Synchronous: In synchronous calls, the code execution must wait for an event before moving forward. The event must return a response before the code executes. Therefore, the callback performs all its tasks before returning the call.