What Are Microservices?
Microservices architecture breaks down applications into small, independent services that communicate over well-defined APIs. Each service focuses on a specific business capability and can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently.
Key Patterns
API Gateway Pattern
An API Gateway acts as a single entry point for all client requests. It handles request routing, composition, and protocol translation, simplifying client-side code.
Service Discovery
In a microservices environment, services need to find each other. Service discovery tools like Consul or Eureka maintain a registry of available services and their locations.
Circuit Breaker
The Circuit Breaker pattern prevents cascading failures. When a service fails repeatedly, the circuit breaker opens, and requests fail immediately without calling the problematic service.
Challenges
Microservices introduce complexity: distributed transactions, network latency, service coordination, and operational overhead. Make sure the benefits outweigh the costs for your use case.