Microservices – IT architecture for the digital landscape of the future

Microservices is an IT architecture that defines how you technically develop and build IT systems. The challenges that microservices address and the advantages companies can gain from this architecture, makes it relevant for other roles than IT developers and architects.

What are microservices?

Microservices are originated as practical experiences from companies like Netflix, Uber and Amazon. These companies are characterized by complex business models, driven by innovation and the need to scale up fast.

Unlike many previous IT architectures such as monolithic applications, point-to-point integration and service-oriented-architecture (SOA), microservices can meet the long-term strategic goals for your business, even as they change.

Microservices can be described as an architecture consisting of individual business process-oriented software components which can be developed and replaced independently from the rest of the IT landscape. They have their own well-defined processes and can smoothly communicate and interact. Switching to microservices can be compared to replacing an employee, who is an expert in everything, to an interdisciplinary team of specialists, each contributing with knowledge within their area.

Microservices support scalability

Customer case, Deloitte, Portals and applications

As user and data volume increases, there is a need for the underlying IT landscape being able to scale. The increasing pressure may be persistent or consist of temporary peak periods, e.g., Black Friday. It is important that an IT system can scale up, but equally important that it can scale down when the system is no longer under pressure. Microservices are built to take advantage of the capabilities of the cloud to scale up and down as needed. The ability to divide microservices allows you to scale the overloaded part or parts. The ability to scale individual parts independently means that a doubling in load doesn’t necessarily mean a doubling of the operating costs.

Leverage and revitalize your core systems

Companies invest heavily in core systems to optimize processes and data collection: ERP, CRM, PLM or document archives. These can be e.g., be insurance calculators and core pension system. There is often huge untapped potential for digitization here. Often it is a challenge for businesses to exploit this potential as data and process are not available in the channels where it could provide a business value.

By working in conjunction with core systems, microservices can display data and processes and thereby support business development and innovative digital solutions. Using microservices, you can achieve this without it requiring great development or changes in the core systems. In short, this means that one or more microservices can help separate or encapsulate parts of the core system functionality and display it in an accessible form. Thus, it will be easier to phase out an outdated core system and/or phase in a new one as your business grows.

Easier updates and replacements

Using microservices, your business appears stronger and is better positioned to keep up with developments in IT. You can easily replace or update individual parts of a system with minimal impact on the other systems, e.g., replace your business’ pricing model without changing other systems. Microservices minimize unnecessary waste and down time in critical systems and can ensure a lot more flexibility with agile solutions contributing to greater efficiency.

Strengthen the possibilities

More efficiency and less errors

Microservices contributes to a higher degree of isolation and more well-defined interfaces, which makes it easier for the individual developer to oversee the business functionality. Developers&nbsp ;thus need to spend less time identifying potential consequences of making changes. Developer satisfaction and efficiency increases because their main focus is on the implementation of the business functionality itself. The business will find that errors are resolved faster, and the number of consequential errors decreases.

Invest in a microservices architecture and get the opportunity to open new digital doors in the future. It is no longer enough to upgrade or modernize your company ’s IT solutions but is equally necessary to select the right IT architecture to support them. This and much more we can help with here at Immeo. Therefore, contact us and hear more about our solutions, as well as what opportunities we can offer just your company. You will definitely be well equipped for the digital challenges of the future with us.

Great business potential with new accounting application at Deloitte

Deloitte

Aller Media, Customer case, IT architecture

Deloitte and Aller Media A/S have had succes using microservices as an IT architecture.

Time-to-market and innovation

At Immeo, we have learned that microservices mean a significant reduction in the deployment time required when our customers launch new initiatives. The business functionality that a microservice exhibits can also be utilized in other contexts. This makes it possible to innovate independently across business areas, spending significantly less time on system integrations and allowing for quick development and deployment of new products and services.

Microservices can thus provide competitive advantages for your business because you achieve faster time-to-market for your products and services, and it provides more opportunities to focus on digital innovation.

Get your company future-proofed together with Immeo

Aller Media, customer case, Pling, Ecommerce

Microservices are not a silver bullet, but if your company has a complex business set-up and wishes to get more value out of your IT landscape, you are much better equipped for the future digital landscape by utilizing microservices as a foundation in your IT architecture. Immeo can help simplify and streamline your business processes with microservices, which give you almost infinite scaling potential and a flexible software architecture that can be further developed and continuously optimized.

Pitfalls

Microservices is a significantly different way to work with IT systems. To achieve maximum efficiency, it will require training and changes in the usual way of working.

Furthermore, the architecture makes new demands on the IT developer skills within a number of disciplines, e.g. automated establishment of infrastructure in Microsoft Azure or corresponding platforms.

Getting off to a bad start with microservice architecture or not having the required expertise within the development team can result in high set-up costs and a diminishment of the advantages of using microservices.

Efficient set-up of microservices requires expertise within:

Cloud
DevOps
Infrastructure as code
Eventual consistent systems
IT development governance

Contact us

We can advise and assist in the development of unique and stable microservice
solutions that take your company’s needs and long-term business goals into account. You get a much more flexible and dynamic IT structure that is able to scale, with high availability ensuring the continued development of your company.