Software development services gain more popularity every day. It is simply because companies, irrespective of industry sectors, tend to get custom software solutions with desired features. However, when it comes to developing a tailored software, scalability plays a vital role. In other words, your software should be capable of addressing increased demands as your business grows. Here, microservice architecture comes into picture.

In this post, we will understand microservice architecture from scratch and discuss its key benefits in custom software development services.

Let’s start.

What is Microservice Architecture?

It is a development approach based on making apps as a collection of small, independent services. In other words, microservice architecture breaks down a large application into smaller and loosely coupled services to develop, deploy, and scale independently. It enables app development teams to work on various components at the same time increasing development speed and flexibility.

A custom software development company can build every service with the help of different technologies and scale independently with the help of microservice architecture. It is useful to meet specific business needs . Let’s understand how microservices can revolutionize custom software development process.

How Microservice Architecture Revolutionizes Custom Software Development

An O’Reilly survey has revealed that 77 percent of companies are using or planning to use microservices in software development. It shows the increasing popularity of microservice architecture and for a good reason. Another survey has revealed that organizations that have adopted microservices architecture report a 60 percent increase in productivity of developers. These figures indicate the importance of microservices in custom software solutions.

Talking about the role of microservice architecture in software development, it breaks down complex applications into smaller, manageable services. This approach enables custom software development companies to bring greater flexibility, scalability, and agility in the process. Each microservice can perform a specific function such as user authentication, database management, or payment processing, and communicates with other services via APIs. This decoupled nature enables teams to work on individual services independently, speeding up development cycles and facilitating continuous integration.

Moreover, microservices offer several advantages over traditional monolithic architectures. They promote easier maintenance and updates since changes to one service do not require modifications to the entire application. Additionally, microservices facilitate technology diversity, allowing development teams to choose the most suitable tools and frameworks for each service. This flexibility and scalability make microservice architecture a preferred choice for modern custom software development.

Key Benefits of Microservices Architecture in Software Development Services

Microservices architecture facilitates custom software development services to streamline development processes and offers many benefits including-

Scalability

It permits scaling of individual services. This modular approach makes it possible to manage increasing workloads without disturbing the system. As a result, software developers can gain scalability without causing disruptions and complete their processes effectively.

Flexibility

Another benefit of microservices is they offer flexibility. Experienced software developers leverage diverse technologies and coding languages with the help of this architecture. It enhances adaptability and empowers them to select optimal tools.

Resilience

Individual service components insulate the system, mitigating the impact of failures in one service on the overall app. As a result, companies can get robust software solution with excellent operational continuity and functionality.

Agile Deployment

Microservices promote agile deployment by supporting the rolling out of new features and updates. Developers can modify specific services swiftly without compromising the entire application’s stability. It can streamline the process and increase agility.

However, software development companies need to overcome several challenges related to microservice implementation to leverage these benefits.

Key Challenges of Microservice Implementation

Complexity, consistency, security, and compliance-related issues are some of the key challenges you need to address when implementing microservices. Let’s understand these challenges in detail-

  1. Higher Complexity

    Managing microservices is complicated due to a large number of services. Unlike monolithic applications, microservices are autonomous and of decentralized nature. Such characteristics make it difficult to mnage the interactions between different individual services. Custom software development companies can follow these methods to address this challenge effectively-

    • Use technologies like Linkerd or Istio to handle the communication between micro services
    • Implement centralized tools for monitoring and logging to track the performance of every service
    • Employ container orchestration platforms such as Kubernets for automating both scaling and deployment of microservices
  2.  Lack of Consistency

    This is another commona challenge in implementing microservices. As microservice architecture brings decenralization in services and makes them individual, every service has a separate database. It causes issues in maintaining data consistency. However, following tips can help companies handle this challenge-

    • Implement patterns like CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation) and event sourcing to maintain data consistency
    • Utilize two-phase commit protocols or distributed transacations to manage data across various services
    • Use data synchronization mechanisms for replicating data changes across various individual services
  3.  Security Issues

    When it comes to custom software development, companies need to focus on security and compliance. When companies deal with distributed data across individual services, it is essential to protect sensitive corporate information. Here are three tips to handle security issues effectively-

    • Use encryption and tokenization for protecting data in transit
    • Audit and monitor microservices for compliance with prevalent regulations like GDPR
    • Utilize API gateways and service proxies for authenticating requests to microservices
  4. Performance Concerns

    It is imperative to consider scalability and performance for microservice architecture as it handles many individual services. Here are the top tips to ensure optimal performance of the system-

    • Utilize approaches like horizontal scaling and load balancing for distributing traffic evenly across multiple services
    • Optimize communication with the help of gRPC or Apache Thrift, popular and lightweight protocols
    • Use caching mechanisms to imrpve the overall performance of specific services effectively

It is better to consult a reputed custom software development services provider to ensure all these challenges are addressed properly while making a tailored software for your company.

Concluding Remarks

Microservice architecture can increase scalability and flexibility by segregating a development project into small, individualized services. However, some challenges including maintaining data consistency and protecting confidential information loom large while implementing microservices in software development. You can hire best custom software developers to meet these challenges and gain the advantage of microservices.