What is Microservices?

What Is Microservices Architecture

Unlike monolithic architecture, where all application code is a single unit, the microservices approach splits the system into small autonomous services. Each service performs one business function (authentication, payments, catalog, notifications), has its own database, and communicates with other services via API. Services can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently.

When Microservices Are Justified

Microservices are not a silver bullet. They increase infrastructure complexity, require mature DevOps processes, and need an experienced team. They are justified when: the system must scale unevenly (one component is more heavily loaded than others), the development team is large (10+ people) and works in parallel, different parts of the system require different technologies, or the business requires high availability with the ability to update components without downtime.

Patterns and Technologies

A typical microservices stack includes: containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), API Gateway for request routing, message broker (RabbitMQ, Kafka) for asynchronous communication, service mesh for managing traffic between services, and centralized logging with monitoring (ELK, Prometheus, Grafana).

Webparadox’s Approach

We do not propose microservices by default. For most projects, we start with a modular monolith — an architecture organized like microservices within a single application that can be split into separate services as the project grows. This provides the benefits of clean architecture without premature complexity. The transition to full microservices happens evolutionarily, when business metrics justify it.