Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular across businesses of all types and industries. But if you want to establish a strong working cloud environment, it’s important to understand the ‘microservices’ that can make up your infrastructure.
In this article, we’ve explored all things cloud microservices, including what they are and how they work, their advantages and challenges, and how to effectively-introduce microservices into your business.
An introduction to cloud microservices
Microservices are small, independent units of software that provide a specific function. They’re often combined with other services to form a larger, more complex application. This is the opposite of ‘monolithic’ computing, whereby all components are tightly knitted and always deployed as a single unit.
Because each service offers unique functionality, one combination will deliver a different output to another – even if there’s some microservice crossover. Looking at things from a different perspective, each application or large piece of software is made up of various different microservices, each working to deliver the specific outcome or solution.
How do cloud microservices work?
There are a couple of key ways that cloud native microservices work and communicate with one another, to deliver specific functions:
- Loose coupling refers to microservices operating independently and separately from each other. This means each service has its own responsibilities; so even when combined to form a larger piece of software, the microservices are only ‘loosely’ coupled. That said, there are naturally going to be component combinations that you use more often than others, which are called cloud containers.
- Independent deployment refers to the way individual microservices can be deployed as individuals; unlike monolithic computing you don’t need to deploy your entire environment. This means you’re able to deploy with greater speed and agility, and avoid wasted resources.
What are the benefits of cloud native microservices?
Reading on, explore the main benefits of cloud microservices architecture, from scalability to innovation and cost-effectiveness.
1. Scalability
Scalability is a key benefit of microservices architecture, with individual components able to be managed independently to meet specific needs and changing demands. This fine control means scaling a single microservice won’t impact the other involved services; rather than over- or under-resourcing an entire application, you can make granular tweaks.
Notably, there are two different types of microservice scaling to consider:
- Horizontal scaling increases the number of microservices in effect, to better-distribute the workload.
- Vertical scaling increases the level of resources assigned to an individual microservices, allowing each to deliver stronger performance.
The way you choose to scale will depend on various factors, such as cost, performance requirement, and complexity.
2. Resilience
Microservices offer significant resilience, especially when compared to traditional or monolithic computing. Due do their modular architecture, the segmented nature of microservices typically makes complete cloud infrastructural failure pretty rare; faults are contained, to the point that if one service fails or underperforms, the others are capable of continuing to function – which keeps downtime to a minimum.
3. Agility
Cloud microservices offer extreme operational agility, allowing you to effectively-adapt to changing market and consumer demands with speed. With simple scaling and rapid deployment, you’re able to respond the changing conditions and make business-critical decisions in moments. This is in contrast to monolithic models, which offer far less ability to adapt applications.
4. Innovation
When you combine rapid scaling and extreme agility, innovation is inevitable. You’re able to test microservice component combinations, experiment across varying environments, and deploy applications to market with speed, to become increasingly-competitive.
5. Reusability
One of the key benefits of microservices in cloud computing is their reusability, in that you’re able to leverage existing components for new applications rather than having to re-develop software – though, it’s important to ensure you first-establish backward compatibility to reuse existing microservices!
What’s more, you can recycle software in different ways to either create new applications, or even scale current ones. By reusing microservices, you can vastly improve business efficiency, reduce development time and associated costs, and accelerate your speed-to-market.
6. Cost efficiency
Cost efficiency often crops up as a general benefit of cloud computing, so it’s likely no surprise that it also makes this list! From pay-as-you-go pricing to dynamic resource allocation – both of which help to ensure you only ever use what you need (and don’t spend more than you require) – microservice models optimise cloud costs.
Additionally, because they’re largely-resilient against fault, you’ll experience vastly-reduced downtime, which lowers the risk of the unnecessary, associated costs of getting your business back online.
7. Organisation
Having an optimised, granular microservice architecture naturally improves business organisation, as you’re able to effectively manage each specific aspect of your environment and applications. With effective management, this enhances organisation, which allows you to streamline computing activity and improve deployment techniques.
8. Security
Another key benefit of microservice architecture is security (especially when compared to traditional solutions), resulting in safer data and genuine protection against threats.
Because microservices are self-contained and modular by nature, you’re immediately reducing the attack surface; if one microservice goes down, the rest of your system is unlikely to be compromised as a result. Similarly, this granularity allows you to grant different levels of access, helping you manage exactly who can and can’t obtain certain data.
9. Efficiency
Migrating to the cloud and introducing microservice infrastructure can quickly improve business efficiency. For instance, you’ll enjoy:
- Optimised scaling
- Granular control
- Speedier deployment
- Reduced downtime
- Business-wide collaboration
Leveraging each of the above allows you to improve operations, reduce costs, and improve speed-to-market.
10. Adaptability
By offering loose coupling, dynamic scaling, and flexible deployment, microservices allow your business to adapt to changing market demands, with speed; whether you’re looking for increased innovation or optimised resource allocation.
What are the challenges associated with microservices?
Of course, while there are plenty of benefits of microservices, it’s important to also be aware of any potential challenges you might encounter – so you can prepare your business to adapt and thrive. The three key considerations to make when migrating to the cloud and introducing a microservice architecture include:
- Complexity: Due to their granularity, microservices can be extremely complex, and take a high level of cloud understanding to maximise efficiency. Often, it’s advised to work with an experienced consultant, to ensure optimised agility and innovation.
- Cost: While working within a cloud environment can often reduce upfront hardware costs, there are ongoing costs to consider – which can rise depending on your required resources. With this in mind, it’s important to have a strong plan of action to ensure optimised cost management, so you’re only paying for what you need.
- Vendor lock-in: When working with a cloud service provider, it’s all-to-easy to become reliant on the vendor, to the point where it’s tricky to adopt another provider’s services or move your environment. Before committing to a particular provider, make sure your terms offer room for flexibility.
Interested in migrating to the cloud?
If you’re interested in learning more about migrating to the cloud and adopting microservice architecture, reach out to our team who’ll be happy to offer bespoke advice centred around your business, processes, and goals. They’ll delve deeper into the technical details and explore how you can improve efficiency to enhance business performance.
Or, if you’re just interested in reading more about the cloud in general, head on over to our blog where we’ve covered all things virtual computing!
