Arquitectura de microservicios: claves para gestionar grandes volúmenes de datos y transacciones

Microservices Architecture: An Innovative Approach to Managing Big Data and Transactions

The digital transformation that all industries are experiencing is generating a Exponential growth in data and transaction volume that companies must process and manage, especially in sectors such as finance, retail and telecommunications.

In this context, microservices architecture addresses several key needs in data processing. For example:

Addresses horizontal scalability, allowing more resources to be added to specific services without affecting the rest of the system.
Improves resilience, since failures in a microservice do not collapse the entire system, which ensures greater availability.
Facilitates the integration of new technologies, adapting to the changing needs of projects.

Microservices architecture is today considered a Flexible and robust solution for systems that must handle, process and analyze large amounts of data efficiently.

To better understand its impact, in this article we analyze its characteristics, advantages and disadvantages, and the trends in microservices and infrastructure modernization.

What is a microservices architecture?

“Microservices architecture is a software development approach that decomposes an application into a series of small, independent, loosely coupled services”, he explains Martin Barrio, Software Delivery Manager IT Patagonia.

Each of these services – or microservices – handles a specific business functionality and communicates with others through lightweight APIs, such as HTTP/REST or messaging.

Martin explains that it is often used in combination with other architectural patterns and styles, such as event-driven architecture, CQRS, and service-oriented architecture.

Features of service architecture

Among the main characteristics of a microservices architecture, we can mention:

1) Breakdown into services

Each microservice is an autonomous unit that can be developed, deployed and scaled independentlyThis improves flexibility and ability to respond quickly to market changes and demands, especially in mainframe environments.
Services communicate with each other using well-defined APIs.
It may involve rewriting or restructuring existing applications to break them down into smaller, modular services that are easier to develop and maintain.

2) Technological independence

Microservices can be written in different programming languages and use different data storage technologies.

This allows teams to Choosing the best technology for each specific serviceIt also facilitates the adoption of modern software development practices, such as Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD).

3) Scalability and resilience

Each microservice can be scaled independently, depending on load needs.
The failure of a microservice does not affect the entire application, which improves system resilience.

4) Organizing around business capabilities

Microservices are organized around specific business capabilities, making it easier to align with business objectives.

Descomposición en servicios, independencia tecnológica, escalabilidad y resiliencia, y organización en torno a capacidades del negocio, son las principales características de las arquitecturas de microservicios. — Service decomposition, technological independence, scalability and resilience, and organization around business capabilities are the main characteristics of microservices architectures.

A practical example of service architecture

Suppose an e-commerce application is divided into several microservices:

User service: handles user registration and authentication.
Product Service: manages the product catalog.
Order service: processes and manages customer orders.
Payment service: handles transactions and payments.

Each of these services can be developed, deployed and scaled independently, allowing for greater flexibility and efficiency in application development and maintenance.

Throughout this article we will go into more depth about this example, depending on each of the topics and particularities of microservices architecture that we will analyze.

Main advantages of using a microservices architecture

As we mentioned before, microservices architectures offer several significant advantages that can Improve both the development and operation of complex applications.

1) Independent scalability

The fact that each microservice can be scaled independently allows for more efficient utilization of resources and better responsiveness to spikes in demand.

2) Agility: rapid development and deployment

Teams can develop, test, and deploy microservices in isolation, speeding up the development cycle and enabling continuous delivery of new functionality.

Por estar escritos en diferentes lenguajes de programación y usar distintas tecnologías de almacenamiento de datos, los microservicios permiten a los equipos elegir la mejor tecnología para cada servicio específico. — Because they are written in different programming languages and use different data storage technologies, microservices allow teams to choose the best technology for each specific service.

3) Resilience and fault tolerance

The failure of one microservice does not affect the entire application. This improves system resilience, as other services can continue to function even if one is down.

4) Technological flexibility

Teams can choose the most appropriate technologies for each microservice. This way, they can experiment with new tools and languages without impacting the entire application.

5) Simplified maintenance and upgrade

It is easier to maintain and update small, specific services. Updates can be performed without having to deploy the entire application, reducing the risk of errors and downtime.

6) Business alignment

Microservices are organized around specific business capabilities, facilitating alignment with business objectives and improving collaboration between technical and business teams.

7) Better team management

Teams can be smaller and more specialized, each responsible for a specific set of microservices. This segmentation improves efficiency and communication within teams.

Las arquitecturas de microservicios ofrecen varias ventajas significativas que pueden mejorar tanto el desarrollo como la operación de aplicaciones complejas. — Microservices architectures offer several significant advantages that can improve both the development and operation of complex applications.

What are the disadvantages of microservices?

Although microservices architecture offers many advantages, it also presents some disadvantages and challenges that are important to consider:

Complexity in communication and management

Communication between multiple microservices can be complex and require advanced orchestration and management tools.

Even latency in communication between services can affect performance, especially in distributed applications.

Increased resource consumption

Each microservice requires its own infrastructure. This requirement can increase the consumption of memory and other resources.

In this regard, it is important to note that operational overhead can be significant, as each service requires its own execution and monitoring environment.

Configuration and deployment management

Managing the configuration of multiple services can be complicated and error-prone.

The initial deployment of a microservices architecture can be more complex and require careful planning.

Monitoring and debugging

Monitoring and debugging an application composed of many microservices can be more difficult than doing so in a monolithic application.

It requires specialized tools to track and analyze the behavior of each service individually.

Initial time and effort

Fragmenting a monolithic application into microservices can require considerable effort and time to plan and execute.

This requires developers with specific skills in managing problems such as network latency or load balancing.

Practical example linked to the disadvantages of microservices

Let's say you want to migrate a monolithic application to a microservices one. This process will involve:

Splitting the application into smaller services, which may require significant code restructuring.
Set up the infrastructure needed for each microservice, including containers, databases, and monitoring tools.
Implement communication mechanisms between services, such as RESTful APIs or messaging systems.
Manage the configuration and deployment of each microservice independently.

These steps can be complex and require a considerable initial investment in time and resources.

Trends in microservices and infrastructure modernization

The field of microservices and infrastructure modernization is constantly evolving to improve agility, scalability, and operational efficiency.

We share some significant trends:

Microservices

In relation to microservices architectures, some of the most notable trends for the future are the following:

Orchestration and containersThe use of container technologies such as Docker, and orchestration tools such as Kubernetes, will continue to grow. These technologies facilitate the management, deployment and scalability of microservices.
Event-driven architecturesThey are gaining popularity as they allow for greater flexibility and scalability by decoupling services and allowing asynchronous communication.
Serverless and FaaS (Function as a Service)These architectures allow developers to focus on the code without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
Security and governanceWith the rise of microservices, security and governance become crucial. An increased focus on implementing security policies and identity and access management tools is expected.

Los microservicios y la modernización de infraestructuras están en constante evolución. — Microservices and infrastructure modernization are constantly evolving.

Infrastructure modernization

Regarding infrastructure modernization, the main trends for the future include:

Decentralization of infrastructure management. It allows companies to delegate more tasks to managed service providers (MSPs). This frees up internal resources to focus on innovation.
Hyperconverged infrastructure. Combines storage, computing and networking in a single solution, offering greater flexibility and scalability.
Hybrid Cloud Adoption. Combines public and private cloud environments. Allows companies to take advantage of the best of both worlds: the flexibility of the public cloud and the control of the private cloud.
Automation and artificial intelligence. These technologies help optimize performance, reduce costs and improve operational efficiency.

Conclusion

Microservices architecture plays a key role in data processing, allowing organizations to manage large volumes of information in an efficient and scalable manner.

Unlike monolithic architectures, microservices divide the system into small, independent, specialized components. This framework facilitates parallel data processing, which is essential when working with large real-time information flows.

Additionally, each microservice can be optimized and scaled individually, which improves overall performance and allows for greater agility in the development and implementation of new functionalities.

From the above, we can say with certainty that microservices are ideal for environments where high performance and availability are required, and in which different teams work in parallel on different services.

This is especially useful in data processing systems that need to react quickly to changes in the market or new user demands. Are you interested in learning more about the added value that our Software Studio can bring to your company? Contact us and let's talk.