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Can't decide which architectural approach to use for your company? In this article, you will read about the comparison of monolithic architecture vs microservices.
Source: Unsplash
Monolithic vs Microservices
In recent years, microservices have become more widespread. Many emphasize that this approach is more flexible and scalable. Companies believe that the move to microservices architecture has a lot to do with business success and growth. Speaking of the monolithic approach, it is traditional for software development. The popularity of the microservice approach lies in the cons of the monolithic approach. For example, handling large codebases, scaling and deploying. In this article, we will analyze the structure of the monolithic and microservice approaches. Let's consider the advantages and disadvantages of each of the approaches.
Monolithic Architecture
Monolithic architecture is the traditional approach to application development. From the term, it is evident that monolithic architecture is built as a single whole. In a monolithic architecture, the application and database are on the server-side, and the user interface is on the client-side. In a monolithic application, it is quite easy to manage functions that are in one place. A monolithic system has a single code base. If you need to change something, you need to refer to a single code base. This means that changes are applied immediately across the entire stack.
Benefits of Monolithic Architecture
- Easy to test and debug
Since the monolithic architecture is a single whole, testing new features is much easier. For example, you can quickly run tight testing right away.
- Ease of development
Monolithic software is the traditional approach. This approach is classic, which is why the development team has enough knowledge to start developing.
- Ease of deployment
Another advantage of the monolithic approach is the ease of deployment. When deploying a monolithic app, only one directory needs to be deployed.
Disadvantages of Monolithic Architecture
- Scalability
When working with a monolithic architecture, it is impossible to scale any individual components. You can only fully scale the entire application.
- Difficulty making changes
When you make changes to a monolithic technology, you change the entire system. That is why this process is rather complicated and painstaking. It is difficult to make changes in a monolithic application.
- Application of new technologies
It is quite difficult to apply new technologies in a monolithic application. This is because the entire application will need to be changed.
Source: Unsplash
Microservices Based Architecture
Microservice architecture is completely different from monolithic architecture. It is divided into several blocks that are independent of each other. In a microservice system, each block is deployed independently and has its own functions. Blocks can interact with each other via API. Blocks can be independently deployed, resized, and scaled.
Benefits of microservices architecture
- Flexibility
Each unit can be deployed independently. Microservice architecture makes it possible to change each block without affecting others. Also, if there is an error in one block, then it will not affect the others. You will have to fix only a single section and not the entire system as a whole. This saves time significantly.
- Ease of scalability
One of the main benefits of a microservice architecture is scalability. Each element of the architecture can be independently scaled. If in the process, you need a larger element, then there is no difficulty in scaling it.
- Flexible choice of technologies
For each microservice separately, the development team can use a different technology. You can choose a different technology stack for different microservices.
Disadvantages of microservice architecture
While microservices apps may seem ideal, they have their drawbacks.
- Communication problems
Since microservices work independently, you need to configure communication between them. Setting up a connection can be really tricky.
- Complexity of testing
In a monolithic architecture, it's easy enough to test a single component right away. However, in a microservice architecture, you have to test each component separately. This can take significantly longer.
- Complexity of connections
Microservice architecture is an extensive network. It contains several modules with independent functions. For the whole system to work correctly, it is necessary to configure the connections between the modules correctly.
A Few More Aspects To Consider While Choosing
Having considered the pros and cons of each approach, you can already draw conclusions for yourself. However, here are a few more aspects worth paying attention to. Obviously, microservice architectures are more expensive than monolithic ones. To create them, you need a lot more servers, cloud capacity. The development team must have many competencies. All of this will cost much more. Monolithic architecture is more suitable for projects on a small budget. If in the future there is a need, then you can switch to a microservices-based architecture.
Microservices gather a lot of technologies around them. Each block can use completely different frameworks and approaches. Working on one project, the whole team must interact with each other. It is quite difficult to find widespread chicken specialists, especially if you have a small budget. Also, try to examine microservices use cases and the examples of the monolithic approach.
However, many also talk about reasons to start with a microservices approach. If you are definitely going to use it in the future, then you should start with it. And then you can simply scale it. Moving from a monolithic architecture will require more effort than scalability. For your company, you are free to choose any approach. Someone prefers to follow trends and choose microservices. Others remain true to the classical approach and use a monolithic architecture.
Author Bio
David Patterson developed an interest in technology, software, and programming while he was very young. Witnessing the dawn of the internet, computers, and smartphones created a unique fascination for the industry and tech. Today, he has accomplished his dream of becoming a programmer. He now wishes to help others access the knowledge and tools they need to do the same. That is the foundation for the Ordb.org magazine.