One day Minnie was going to the Supermarket when she heard Mickey calling her out
Mickey – Hey! Minnie
Minnie – Hi Mickey, How are you
Mickey – I am fine, Have been searching for you
Minnie – What happened, tell me
Mickey – I keep hearing this word Microservices but have never understood, what it actually means. Need your help
Minnie – Oh-kay! I know you need a story to understand everything
Mickey – You know me
Minnie – Okay, how about you come along to the Supermarket and I will tell you the story of Microservices
Mickey – Sure Minnie, let’s go
(Mickey and Minnie at the Supermarket)
Minnie – Okay Mickey, tell me how do you find this supermarket
Mickey – It is like any supermarket. Why are you asking me useless questions?
Minnie – Do you like going to the Supermarket
Mickey – Yes
Minnie – What do you find good here?
Mickey – Nothing much, it’s just that I can get all my stuff in one place and it is quick and easy. Everything is arranged and placed in its location. It’s easy to find and get things.
Minnie – Exactly! Now just imagine, if all the things are put together and it’s on you to figure out, find what you need and then get it.
Mickey – What! NO! It will be a nightmare. It will be a lot of chaos. I won’t come here
Minnie – So the Supermarket works efficiently because there are sections for each product or each type of product, nicely placed and arranged
There is a section for groceries, which can have further subsections, there is a separate section for fruits and vegetables, a section for books, for furniture, for stationery items, etc.
And together they form the Supermarket and is organized and together it works so well
Mickey – Yes I know and that is the reason it works so efficiently
Minnie – Yes, now, in the same way, Microservices are smaller component or services that work together to form the complete application or service
Mickey – Wow! I need to know more
Minnie – Let’s suppose, there is an e-commerce application. It can have sections or module like:
Users
Products
Orders
Inventory
Marketing
Shipping
Payments
Notifications
Currency Management
Accounts
Reports
Here some sections or modules can have further sub-sections like Products can have categories like
Apparels
Toys
Electronics
Kitchen
Furniture
etc.
Mickey – I am getting it so far
Minnie – Now imagine each of these modules is independent of each other in a way that they have a separate code base and repository, are hosted on a separate server, have its own Database and management systems
And all of them can integrate with each other to make the complete application or service function efficiently
Mickey – Okay so it is like complete independent smaller services within a large service
Minnie – Yes and that is why these are called microservices
Mickey – Tell me more
Minnie – Sure, but do you want to grab some snacks first
Mickey – Yes, let’s go to the snacks section. Err… I mean Snacks Microservices
(Both laughing)
Minnie – You are getting it
Mickey – I am smart
Minnie – Okay Mickey, so you see earlier we had Monolithic services where all the services were housed together in the single code base, using the same server and Database and all resources
Here it will be very difficult if there is some issue in one particular module, the whole application will stop functioning
However, with the Microservices architecture, we can manage, update, fix, upgrade an isolated service or module, without impacting any other module or service
Mickey – Yes, that’s so awesome. It’s like in the Supermarket, every section has its own inventory, transport, and management. If anything goes wrong or needs any change or upgrade, we do not have to touch any other service or process, It can all be done at the microservice level
Minnie – You got it exactly
Mickey – I told you I am smart
Minnie – Yeah!
Mickey – Hey Minnie, this is getting exciting, Tell me more
Minnie – Now just imagine, let’s say a particular microservice like Products is getting huge traffic and we need to add more servers, It can be done easily and the isolated service can be scaled up without touching any other service
Mickey – Yeah
Minnie – So here are the main advantages of using Microservices architecture
- Scalability – Isolated services can be scaled up or down as per the need
- Maintenance – Every service can be updated or maintained separately without impacting the other services
- Addition and Deletion – With Microservices architecture adding new services or removing old services is very easy and efficient
- Technology Stack – Different microservices can use different technology in terms of language, server, DB, etc
- Cost – It is a very cost-efficient system
- Time – Time for every operation reduces considerably
- Testing & Deployment – It is very difficult to test a complete Monolithic Service, but with isolated microservices, it’s very easy to test and deploy
Mickey – I see
Minnie – Are you able to get it now
Mickey – Yes I do Ma’am
Minnie – But you look lost in thoughts
Mickey – Just thinking why did I not meet you earlier. This is so great to know
Minnie – How do you feel now
Mickey – I feel much better and intelligent now 🙂
Minnie – Good to know Mickey
Mickey – Just one more question, these are separate isolated services, which have their own separate management system, But ultimately they have to work together for the entire application to work
Minnie – Yes, you are right
Mickey – So basically they must interact with each other. Am I right!
Minnie – Yes you are absolutely right, The microservices interact with each other and can use API calls for that
Mickey – And how do we test them
Minnie – We can test a microservice in isolation and then can also test its interaction with other services using the request-response process.
One of the process to test microservices is call Contract Testing
Contract Testing is mostly used in Microservices Architecture where we have multiple isolated services and to check the interaction and communication between these services Contract Testing is an efficient process.
Mickey – I got it exactly
Minnie – Happy to know
Mickey – Just one more question
Minnie – Bring it on Mickey
Mickey – Can there be any drawbacks of microservices
Minnie – Yes there are some like
- Developing distributed systems can be a little complex. As everything is now a separate module, it is important to carefully handle the requests and response coming in and going out of the service
- Need to maintain multiple Databases and Management systems
- Testing has to be done separately for each Microservice and then for the complete application working together
But you see with all this, it still becomes easier and efficient to manage a distributed system. So the advantages are much more than the drawbacks
Mickey – Yes, I see that
Minnie – Anything else you need to know Mickey
Mickey – Yes, so is it always good to have a Microservice Architecture
Minnie – It depends, For a large application with multiple functional components like an e-commerce application, microservice architecture is the best bet.
If there is some small application that does not require many distinct modules or services, monolith architecture should work fine.
Mickey – I got it
Minnie – So can you now explain Microservices in your class
Mickey – Yes, not just in my class, but to anyone in this world
Minnie – I hope now you will never forget what are microservices
Mickey – Never, till the end of my life
Minnie – Wow! That’s deep
Mickey – Thanks Minnie, you are truly my best friend
Minnie – I am always here for you 🙂
