Microservices
An architectural style where applications are composed of small, independent services that communicate over network protocols.
In-Depth Explanation
Microservices architecture structures an application as a collection of loosely coupled, independently deployable services. Each service handles a specific business capability and can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently.
Microservices characteristics:
- Single responsibility: Each service does one thing well
- Independent deployment: Deploy services without affecting others
- Decentralised data: Each service owns its data
- Technology flexibility: Different services can use different stacks
- Resilience: Failure in one service doesn't crash others
Benefits:
- Independent scaling
- Faster deployment cycles
- Team autonomy
- Technology flexibility
- Fault isolation
Challenges:
- Distributed system complexity
- Network latency and reliability
- Data consistency across services
- Operational overhead
- Testing complexity
Communication patterns:
- Synchronous: REST, gRPC
- Asynchronous: Message queues, events
Business Context
Microservices enable large organisations to move faster with independent teams and services, but add complexity that smaller organisations may not need.
How Clever Ops Uses This
We design appropriate architectures for Australian businesses - microservices when scale and team structure warrant, simpler architectures when they don't.
Example Use Case
"An AI platform with separate services for: embedding generation, vector search, chat completion, and user management - each scaling and deploying independently."