Microservices architecture has emerged as a technology trend to watch; some have gone as far as to say that microservices architecture is “SOA done right.” The reality, however, is much more nuanced.
It’s true that service-oriented architecture failed to deliver in many areas, but it’s also clear that software development underwent some radical changes in its move toward Agile, DevOps, and decoupled, autonomous teams.
Where Did Traditional SOA Go Wrong?
SOA isn’t dead, but it has lost a lot of momentum. Certainly, many of the ideas of traditional SOA may seem quaint in today’s agile IT environments. All service-oriented architectures use Web services as their core building blocks, but in traditional SOA, services are provided by tightly-coupled, monolithic applications, and communicate with each other across complex enterprise service buses (ESB). Services often share a business layer, data access layer, and database with other services. This introduces a number of issues, including complexity in managing metadata and Web service standards, limited reusability of services, and centralized governance models that inhibit change and reduce agility.
The Move to Microservices
The differentiating feature of microservices architecture is extreme decoupling. Each microservice is independently deployable and provides a well-defined business capability. The high degree of decoupling inherent in microservices offers many advantages, including scalability, simplicity, ease of upgrades, and the ability to choose the “best tool for the job.” Combined with DevOps and cloud, microservices architecture represents a major evolution in software architecture. In many ways, microservices architecture can be viewed as SOA evolved to support Agile organizations and cloud-scale infrastructure.
The pace of change is accelerating, and carriers need systems that can support this change rather than impede it. Microservices adoption is gaining traction among carriers and vendors as a result. Combined with DevOps and cloud, microservices architecture stands to create significant value across the insurance industry and beyond.
For more on microservices architecture and pertinent considerations and benefits, see Novarica’s latest brief, Microservices Architecture: The Future of SOA?
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