Microservice Patterns and Best Practices

Microservices architecture takes an application and arranges it into a collection of services, each one loosely coupled with as few dependencies on one another as possible.

Services in a microservices architecture are lightweight, which improves resilience, reduces costs, increases release speed, and even helps improve enterprise visibility.

The Five Microservices Patterns

Overcoming the challenges associated with microservices architecture is best done by using the correct design patterns, which can be divided into five main patterns, each containing many more.

The five groups are:

Selecting the right pattern is essential to microservices success, but so is following the established guidelines.

Microservice best practices

Here's a closer look at the top microservice best practices to consider.

1. Evaluate microservices next to other architectures

Microservices is becoming something of a buzzword, but that doesn't mean you should jump on the architecture just because it's growing in popularity.

Determining whether this style of architecture is a good fit for your business is very important before proceeding.

The main prerequisite is being able to break your web app down into individual functions that can provide value on their own.

2. Avoid Under-Fragmentation at all costs

To reap the benefits of microservices architecture, you must first distinguish among your functions, services, and microservices.

Failing to do so means you're likely to build microservices that aren't micro enough. Under-fragmentation will prevent you from seeing the benefits of microservices.

Meanwhile, the other end of the spectrum could leave you with too many microservices, and over-fragmentation is just as detrimental, as it unnecessarily increases operation costs.

3. Utilize Domain-Driven design

Domain-driven design (DDD) is a principle that helps express an object-oriented model through the use of practical concepts and rules, allowing software architects to distinguish between various business domains so they can focus on microservices that fit the business's bigger goals and objectives.

The process of implementing DDD is related to defining your company's microservices, but it dives even deeper.  

4. Seek early buy-in from the team

Implementing microservices may seem like a largely technical decision, but it's important to take a step back and recognize that this is a big transformation—one that is expensive and impactful for every area of business.

It requires your company to make the transition from monolithic architecture to microservices in what will prove to be a very complex, time-consuming project, so it requires early buy-in from your senior management and all departments.

5. Opt for RESTful APIs

Microservices architecture can create incredible value for your company, so long as you make use of RESTful APIs in the most efficient manner possible.

These APIs bring many advantages, like eliminating the need to install client-side software.

They also need no frameworks or SDKs.

Simply seek to follow topic expert Leonard Richardson's maturity model for your REST API usage, and you'll be on track to optimized implementation.

6. Restructure based around microservices

Another reason why buy-in is essential is that an organization will only fully realize the benefits of microservices when it restructures to suit the new architecture.

Building out teams to manage various microservices will empower them to work more efficiently while keeping everyone cross-functional and on track with the bigger plan and objectives.

Creating microservices teams will improve delivery speed, among other things.

7. Make sure each microservice owns it data

For microservices architecture to truly work for your organization, each one needs to completely own its data, which requires you to provide separate data storage for each one.

While data can be shared between microservices, this sharing should occur with the help of APIs.

Failing to keep the purposes and advantages of microservices in mind has led many companies astray.

When you end up with microservices sharing data storage, this leads to coupling, contradicting the fundamental principles of microservices design.

8. Invest in microservices monitoring

While it's true that microservices architecture can improve visibility overall, you have to recognize that the transition to microservices will introduce more complexity than before.

Increased performance demands and a dynamic environment both require advanced monitoring, so that's exactly what you must invest in. A monitoring system will help address continuous changes, resource allocation, and more.

The monitoring tool should store insights in a central database, but a different agent should be dedicated to each microservice.

9. Educate your core teams

Ultimately, making the transition to microservices architecture can bring a host of benefits to your company, so long as you take the right approach. The move starts with having your core teams on board with the decision, and this begins with education.

By making your team members and leaders aware of the complexities and benefits of microservices architecture, you can set your company up for a successful transformation.

Following the microservice best practices laid out above will help your business reap the most rewards from the move while avoiding common pitfalls and hurdles along the way.

When it comes to microservices, Adservio is proud to have a team of experts standing by to resolve issues and help companies follow the established best practices to achieve timely, effortless results.