This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Dishang Soni
In the rapidly evolving landscape of software architecture, Infrastructure vs Monoliths is one of the most critical decisions development teams face. Choosing between microservices infrastructure and monolithic architecture can significantly impact your application’s scalability, maintainability, deployment strategies, and overall development experience.
Both architectural patterns have their strengths and weaknesses, and the right choice depends on various factors including team size, project complexity, scalability requirements, and organizational structure. Let’s dive deep into understanding these two approaches and when to use each one.
Understanding Monolithic Architecture
A monolithic architecture represents a traditional approach where an entire application is built as a single, unified unit. All components, features, and functionalities are tightly integrated within one codebase and deployed together as a single package.
In a monolithic system, the user interface, business logic, data access layers, and database interactions all exist within the same application boundary. This means that any change, regardless of how small, requires rebuilding and redeploying the entire application.
Key Characteristics of Monoliths
Monolithic applications typically feature a single deployment unit, shared database, synchronized development cycles, and centralized logging and monitoring. The entire application runs in a single process, making inter-component communication straightforward through in-process method calls.
Understanding Microservices Architecture
Microservices architecture breaks down an application into multiple small, independent services that communicate over well-defined APIs. Each service is responsible for a specific business function and can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently.
This approach promotes loose coupling between services, allowing teams to work independently, choose different technologies for different services, and deploy updates without affecting the entire system. Each microservice typically has its own database and handles a specific business domain.
Key Characteristics of Microservices
Microservices feature independent deployments, decentralized data management, technology diversity, fault isolation, and distributed system complexity. Services communicate through network calls, typically using REST APIs, message queues, or event streaming platforms.
Read full article: https://serveravatar.com/microservices-infrastructure-vs-monoliths/
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Dishang Soni