top of page
Writer's pictureWhizzystack Solutions

Monolith vs. Microservices Architecture in a Nutshell




If you want to sustain a current, profitable company and easily and effectively handle it: select the Monolith.


So if you're working in a competitive business segment, if you're facing competition, if speed, agility, and time-to-market are important to you, or if you're prioritized with big ambitions and scalability, then the Microservices architecture is the best path forward.

Why does architecture at Microservices offer these benefits over the Monolith?


The architecture of microservices breaks down a large problem into several small ones that can be handled. Of course, several small issues aren't inherently easier to handle but the trick is the established interfaces between these small issues. It's likely that each small problem (area/feature/team) can be addressed fairly independently thanks to these interfaces. In each case, an optimized way can be chosen that best and quickest solves the problem.


The concept is not new in the Architecture of Applications (SOAP, etc.). The efficiency of processors and networks, and their easy availability as virtual cloud services, has changed in recent years.


So, today it's possible to do what 10 years ago was unthinkable: distributed "best-of-breed" microservices (API-First) in which multiple providers work together – in "real-time," without significant delays.


It was only through the consistent use of a Microservices architecture that well-known brands such as Amazon, Netflix, Uber, eBay, ... were able to expand so rapidly. They all started with classic monolithic architecture and realized quickly that the Microservices way was better.


Since the big companies listed earlier also had virtually unlimited capital available, they were able to differentiate themselves quite quickly from the competition and thus set new standards – especially in terms of customer service. Classical, medium-sized companies that still have the ability to develop a single digital product that meets their customers' current requirements. But they have no chance to keep up with the current velocity of change with a Monolithic architecture. New technologies (smartphones, television, voice, ...) are still on the market and the major players are setting new expectations very fast in terms of product instruction, functionality, and usability.


Of course, as the companies listed above have done, small and medium-sized businesses do not have the ability to develop their Microservices-based Infrastructure entirely on their own. But luckily more and more of the existing vendors opt for API-first and new vendors are entering the market as "headless" or "API-native."




Statistically:


To express the probability of a monolithic architecture rising graphically: At first, the curve rises very steeply, i.e. the ratio of capital employed to the benefits obtained is very strong. But the bigger and bigger the idea is the flatter the curve. Everybody knows that small projects are often incredibly efficient. One is surprised with large projects that even a doubling of staff costs leads to barely any measurably improved production.


If we pass these graphs to the Microservices now, at the beginning the curve is not so steep, but the small projects or microservices do not exceed the scale at which the curve flattens. The explanation why at the beginning the curve isn't so steep is that microservices need a large overhead for abstraction or the development of specified standard interfaces. Overall, however, for the same overall effort, the individual Microservices achieve a slightly better cost-benefit ratio and are practically limitless in their scaling.

End to End Microservices

In this way, all aspects of customer-oriented digital communication can now be applied easily. Any area? No, one important area has so far been left out: the digital frontend, the digital shop window, the shop counter, the customer interface.

Until two years ago, companies had only the option to create their own custom-made products or have them designed by a service provider. And not only that, each firm had to take care of the operation individually as well. While the other services were consumed simply as cloud services, the classic bottleneck remained that crucial part.

It's no mistake that manufacturers have not provided exactly this aspect for a long time: it's no easy undertaking to provide an API-oriented cloud service that is both standardized and customizable.

Fantastic came out with the latest genre Frontend-as-a-Service in 2018, offering the last required component that businesses need to keep up with the major players, or simply change their product faster.





Frontend-as-a-Service

It is simple to understand how "Frontend-as-a-Service" (FaaS) or "Frontend Management Platform" (FMP) works: all the information needed for the customer experience is accessible through API. They are connected to common or individual frontend components (building blocks) and the business team can easily create new business models and make them accessible to consumers or partners, much as with a homepage designer. For the modern API-based world, what is known today from the classic (consumer) world with WordPress, Wix, Shopify, etc. is now available as well.


The Frontend Management Framework is also designed in a service-oriented manner: this allows the business team to operate entirely independently of the design team and the product team, independent of the growth and integration team. In this way, new features and business ideas with maximum speed and minimum dependencies can be brought to the customer.

Nevertheless, a service-oriented architecture provides not just benefits in terms of complexity over the Monolith: due to the open architecture, individual components can be shared much easier. For the customer experience, this can mean, for example, that you can swap the eCommerce framework, the search, or even the suggestion without modifying the user guide or the code.

But if you have an existing, lucrative business and want to manage it easily and efficiently, as I said, then choose the Monolith. The benefit here – for completeness' sake – is that you get everything from one source, and typically have just one central interface to handle all components.




Conclusion:


You can scale your company up really well even with providers like Shopify. And-to stays with the example-Shopify has an API as well. It enables you to connect single services, but also individual frontends such as Fantastic.


As a reputed Software Solutions Developer we have expertise in providing dedicated remote and outsourced technical resources for software services at very nominal cost. Besides experts in full stacks We also build web solutions, mobile apps and work on system integration, performance enhancement, cloud migrations and big data analytics. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!

This article is contributed by Ujjainee. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science . She likes most about Computer Engineering is that it allows her to learn and be creative. Also, She believes in sharing knowledge hence is very fond of writing technical contents for the same. Coding, analyzing and blogging are things which She can keep on doing!!

13 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page