October 2018 - Microservices architecture has become mainstream over the last couple of years, and it seems set to play a pivotal role in the future of insurance technology. Carriers and vendors are actively engaged in new builds as well as attempting to rework their existing systems along microservices lines.

Some have called microservices architecture “SOA done right,” the implication being that traditional SOA went wrong somewhere along the way. The reality, however, is more nuanced. It’s true that SOA failed to deliver in many areas, but it’s also clear that software development underwent some radical changes over the same period. In many ways, SOA feels distinctly legacy in today’s world of Agile development and cloud deployments.

This brief discusses what microservices architecture is, where it came from, and how it differs from traditional SOA. It also covers the benefits and drawbacks and explains how adopting it in isolation is a recipe for disappointment.