To preserve is inferior; to adapt is supreme. In e-commerce, it is no different; trends come and go, and people adapt eventually. Whether it be some ‘tech-superior’ system or a bunch of clever tricks to increase revenue, entrepreneurs and businessmen are willing to spend billions in order to achieve these updates. In this article, we will be discussing Microservices, a popular e-commerce trend that has stolen the hearts of many!

Microservices- A short introduction

An agile and easily scalable infrastructure that makes the deployment of software faster and cheaper is called Microservices. It allows swift adaptation to generate online sales, exchange data, and synchronize web activity.

Microservices are groups of individual systems that are connected to communicate about specific purposes. Being related to Service Oriented Architecture SOA, these are often self-governing and divided into various service elements. The use of microservices is closely associated with the employment of APIs, REST supports, and NoSQL databases.

Characteristics of Microservices

Let us now explore the features of Microservices and how it promises to help e-commerce sites proceed further in their fields:

Granularity: Microservices are small, independent services that are grouped according to the capabilities, functions, and requirements of the business. Being compact, these leave smaller footprints than the other architecture types, monolithic and SOA.

Independent: Each microservice is developed, organized, and run separately by different teams. As a result, they can be deployed, tested, upgraded independently.

Specialized: One microservice cannot, and is not supposed to, serve functions of more than one aspect. Each is specialized in various subjects to prevent multitasking among the workers. This, therefore, enhances employee productivity and efficiency.

Protected communication: Even though microservices are kept well separated, they need to interact with each other to come to a solution. To ensure the safety of data and no plagiarism in code, Application Programming Interface APIs are installed in the barriers isolating the Microservices.

Specified Scaling: You have the choice to scale up or down Microservices individually. That being said, you can scale up the microservice that suffer from resource constraints and scale down the one which receives minimal consumer attention.

Technology-agnostics: To protect the overall network, Microservices use protocols such as HTTP. Another thing to note is that each Microservices has the freedom to select from the various different programming languages available regardless of what other Microservices use. In fact, not only the language, but other technological tools can vary among Microservices as well.

Why are Microservices so popular?

The real reason behind its popularity is its organization and deployment facilities. Companies that require regular changes to be made in their software find the Microservices Architecture valuable and reliable. Startups that are willing to grow among the crowded e-commerce industry also detect Microservices as an efficient tool. They are easy to use and affordable in terms of finances. Let’s check out some other benefits of Microservices:

  • Easy to scale: Launching and deploying software can be done faster and more efficiently.
  • Easy to extend features: Add to or update existing functions your software runs on.
  • Allows to adjust and experiment software functionalities without the risk of long downtimes.
  • Easy to maintain, modify, and understand the aspects of your software.
  • Multiple Developers can contribute to each project through communication between the microservice teams.
  • Specificity encourages new developers to start working without much experience or extensive knowledge.
  • Increased Employee productivity in the workplace due to flexibility and agility provided by the system.
  • Safe to adopt new technology equipment without having high risks of software downtime.

Challenges of Microservices

With excellent benefits come great challenges. Even though microservice provides gradual ease at workplaces, the initial setup and structure can be difficult to figure out. Below are some of the common challenges faced by Microservices users:

Designing the system: It is no wonder that creating discrete services is complicated. Calculations based on the sizes of your desired Microservices and optimal boundaries tend to take a lot of time and effort. Securing connection points and integrating services can also be noted as a challenge.

Ensuring Security: Since data is spread out to many different Microservices, it can be tricky to control them. Information also passes through multiple clients at once among numerous infrastructure layers. This increases the risk of data loss.

Distributed framework: Setting up access controls and authentication methods in several barriers entice cyber attacks as a result of exposing data. It takes a lot of diligence to preserve customer data confidentiality, integrity, and privacy.

Complex operations: With the widespread microservice information scattered through the software, it is difficult to identify the exact source of error. As a consequence, the software becomes prone to external and internal errors that might lead to long periods of downtime.

Communication disabilities: It is crucial for Microservices to communicate effectively. However, this confidential information can leak through the transfer passageways. Resource sharing has to be done to save the company from additional expenditure, which again risks potential threats to the system, i.e., viruses being spread.

Tips to run Microservices

Now that you are aware of the benefits and challenges you will be facing if you opt for Microservices, here are a few tips to eliminate additional complications during the process:

  1. Establish repeatable coding standards so that they can be reused in other parts. This will prevent any errors from being repeated and will save up time.
  2. Strategise and plan Microservices functionalities. Note down all vulnerabilities and possible dangers caused by weaknesses of the software.
  3. Map out communication pathways to be able to catch problematic areas and trace irregular behavior.

As you can see, using Microservices provides a lot of advantages compared to monoliths or SOAs. Even though they have a few challenges, extensive research is being done to eliminate these so that you and many other ‘success-hunters’ can have a wonderful experience with Microservices.

Microservices have proved to be effective and efficient in generating sales and increasing both employee and customer satisfaction. Nonetheless, it is extremely important to consider your business requirements and resources before choosing a software architecture format.