In this chapter, we discussed what the microservice architectural style is in detail, its history, and how it differs from its predecessors: monolithic and SOA. We further defined the various challenges that monolithic faces when dealing with large systems. Scalability and reusability are some definite advantages that SOA provides over monolithic. We also discussed the limitations of the monolithic architecture, including scaling problems, by implementing a real-life monolithic application. The microservice architecture style resolves all these issues by reducing code interdependency and isolating the dataset size that any one of the microservices works upon. We utilized dependency injection and database refactoring for this. We further explored automation, CI, and deployment. These easily allow the development team to let the business sponsor choose what industry trends to respond to first. This results in cost benefits, better business response, timely technology adoption, effective scaling, and removal of human dependency.

In the next chapter, we will go ahead and transition our existing application to the microservice-style architecture and put our knowledge to a real test.