Continuing from the previous article about Frontend Architecture, let’s further discuss the two types of modern application architectures: Monolithic architecture and microservices architecture.
What is Monolithic Architecture?
A monolithic application is a distinct, self-contained software platform that is independent of other apps. Monolithic architecture software is a traditional model that creates a single, large software system that is isolated and self-contained. The term “monolith” is fairly accurate in describing a monolithic application design. A monolithic system is a single, sizeable computing network where all business functions are integrated through a common code base. The frontend is difficult to modify because it requires rebuilding the whole stack to change it.
Pros
Deploying is easier
Because all aspects of a monolith are centralized, it can be simple to develop and can accelerate the time to market. Because a single developer or small development team may quicker create, test, and launch applications with a monolith, it is more straightforward to make.
Developing is easier
Creating an app based on microservices requires specialized skills and training, and most development teams are now capable of building a monolith application.
Performance is better
Because a central code base and repository can often perform the same function as numerous APIs, one API can frequently do the same job as numerous APIs.
Testing is simpler
By definition, a monolithic application is a single, centralized unit. End-to-end testing can be performed more quickly than with a distributed application.
Debugging is easier
When testing and debugging monolithic applications, there is only one code repository to keep track of. This makes monoliths easier to test than microservices-based applications.
Better Security
Breaking up an application into microservices has some security benefits, but using a monolith means security is handled in one place, rather than having to track vulnerabilities across all microservices.
Con
More time for development
With applications with a monolithic architecture, it’s easy for applications to become large, which can make development more complicated and slower.
Low Scalability
Adding additional compute resources to a monolithic application will scale it vertically. This may be costly and may have limitations on how much it may scale vertically.
The barrier to technology adoption
With a monolithic architecture, adding or altering functionality is difficult because of the interlocking dependencies. The needs of your application, on the other hand, may constrain the developers' abilities to introduce new features.
Lack of flexibility
A monolithic codebase can become extremely large and complex as an application grows and adds functionality. It is difficult to manage, especially as the team of developers working on the individual codebase increases. Changes made to one component of the application may unintentionally affect other parts of the codebase, which can result in additional time needed to identify issues.
Deployment
Recreating a monolithic application piece by piece would require redeploying the whole thing. On the other hand, altering a minor element in a monolithic application would require only a minor change to be made.
What is Microservices Architecture?
A microservice architecture, sometimes known as microservices, is an architectural strategy that relies on a series of independently deployable services. These services have their own business logic and database with a specific objective. Updating, testing, deployment, and scaling happen within each service. An independent code base for domain-specific concerns is created by separating domain matters into microservices. Microservices do not simplify complexity, however, they make it obvious and therefore more manageable by dividing tasks into smaller processes that operate independently of each other and contribute to the whole.
In 2009, Netflix experienced growing pains. Its infrastructure couldn't keep up with the demand for its rapidly expanding video streaming services. Netflix migrated its IT infrastructure from its private data centers to a public cloud and replaced its monolithic architecture with a microservices architecture. However, the term "microservices" was yet to be coined and the structure was not well-known. Monolithic applications are convenient to code manage, have increased cognitive overhead, and can be deployed at once. This gives them all. Monoliths can be created early in a project's life, and they can be used to deploy all of the components.
Pro
Great for agile-working teams
Microservies usually work for teams in small numbers and deploys frequently by promoting an agile work style. Microservice-based organizations are usually happy because they can build and deploy themselves without waiting weeks for a pull request to be approved. Because they are more autonomous, they can build and deploy themselves without waiting. Teams can also choose the tools they want with microservices architectures.
Better scalability
When a microservice reaches its load capacity, new instances may be rapidly deployed to the accompanying cluster to relieve pressure. We now offer multi-tenancy and statelessness with our customers scattered across multiple instances. We can now support larger instance sizes.
Better maintenance and testability
Teams can experiment with new features and roll back if something doesn’t work. This makes it easier to update code and speeds up the time to market for new features. At the same time, faults and bugs in individual services can be isolated and fixed, as well as avoiding the risks of destroying the entire application in the event of making changes to a specific service
Independent deployment
Microservices enable fast and easy independent deployment of individual features because they are individual units.
Con
Complexity
In a monolithic application, each part of the application is a single, self-contained unit. On the other hand, with a microservice architecture, there are more services in more places, each controlled by a separate team. This means there is more complexity, and consequently, may end up with slower development time and poor operational performance depending on the team. It is required for the teams to enhance their communication and collaboration by adding a new level as the understanding of each other’s services is necessary.
Framework Cost
As microservices architecture has each new microservice, it may have its own test suite, deployment playbooks, hosting infrastructure, monitoring tools, and other necessities, which can end up with a heavy recurring cost.
Debugging difficulties
Understanding the logs of each microservice is harder than usual, as is debugging a business process that operates on multiple machines.
Lack of standardization and ownership
No single platform can guarantee the growth of multiple languages, logging standards, and monitoring techniques. Also, as there are more teams working on providing services as more services are introduced, in the long run, it may be difficult to recognize the available services and who to contact for aid.
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