How can you make microservices architecture portable and interoperable across vendors and platforms?

Microservices architecture is a popular way of designing and developing software applications as a collection of loosely coupled, independent, and scalable services. However, one of the challenges of microservices is how to make them portable and interoperable across different vendors and platforms, especially in the cloud. In this article, you will learn some of the best practices and tools that can help you achieve this goal.

1 Use standardized interfaces and protocols

One of the key principles of microservices is to communicate via well-defined interfaces and protocols, such as RESTful APIs, HTTP, and JSON. This allows each service to expose its functionality and data in a consistent and interoperable way, regardless of the underlying technology or platform. By using standardized interfaces and protocols, you can also leverage existing tools and frameworks that support them, such as Swagger, Postman, and Spring Boot.

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Shivang Sarawagi

Into systems architecture? So am I. I share thoughts and curated resources around it. Feel free to follow along.
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The key thing in enabling a service to move across vendors and platforms is minimizing vendor lock-in as much as possible. This can be done by relying on open-source and leveraging open-source managed services that cloud platforms offer. So, as opposed to using AWS Dynamo DB, I will consider MongoDB or Redis for my use case. This will help me migrate to a different platform when required without the need to refactor code much.

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2 Adopt containerization and orchestration

Another way to make microservices portable and interoperable is to package them as containers, which are lightweight and isolated units of execution that can run on any environment that supports the container engine, such as Docker. Containers also enable you to abstract away the dependencies and configurations of each service, making them easier to deploy and manage. To orchestrate the containers, you can use tools such as Kubernetes, which is a platform-agnostic system that automates the scaling, scheduling, and networking of containerized applications.

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Brijesh Kumar

Schneider | Technologist | Digital Transformation
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Containerization complements DevOps because software can be deployed and tested faster, improving feedback loops. Containerization is also a major factor in the popularity of microservices, a software architecture that improves flexibility and agility. You can use containerization to speed up the time it takes to develop new features and get feedback. Improving the feedback loop for your product leads to a better product and happier customers.

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3 Follow the 12-factor app methodology

The 12-factor app methodology is a set of best practices for building cloud-native applications that are portable and interoperable across different environments. The 12 factors cover topics such as codebase, dependencies, configuration, logging, concurrency, and dev/prod parity. By following the 12-factor app methodology, you can ensure that your microservices are designed and developed in a way that makes them adaptable and resilient to changes and challenges in the cloud.

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Venkatachalam D.

CEO & Founder - 10decoders : 200+ engineers revolutionizing Healthcare & Fintech
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12-factor principles when adopted properly is one of the most effective ways to build, manage and migrate microservices. An ideal 12-factor app will present minimal challenges in migration. Also, note that the 12-factor principles are common for any language that you choose to write your microservice

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4 Use service meshes and API gateways

Service meshes and API gateways are two complementary technologies that can help you manage the communication and coordination of microservices across different vendors and platforms. A service mesh is a layer of infrastructure that provides features such as service discovery, load balancing, encryption, authentication, and observability for inter-service communication. An API gateway is a single entry point that provides features such as routing, security, throttling, and transformation for external communication. By using service meshes and API gateways, you can decouple your microservices from the details and complexities of the network and the cloud.

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5 Implement event-driven architecture

Event-driven architecture is a pattern that enables microservices to communicate asynchronously and reactively based on events, such as messages, streams, or triggers. Events are produced and consumed by microservices via brokers or platforms that support event-driven paradigms, such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or AWS Lambda. Event-driven architecture can enhance the portability and interoperability of microservices by reducing the coupling and increasing the scalability and resilience of the system.

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Brijesh Kumar

Schneider | Technologist | Digital Transformation
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With an event-driven architecture, applications can respond to data as it is generated. The event-driven approach has become extremely popular in recent years thanks to both the explosion in data sources that generate events (IoT sensors, for example) and the development and adoption of technologies that process event streams, such as Hazelcast Jet and Apache Kafka®. The event-driven approach enables businesses to think of their operations and the data they generate as a series of ongoing events, rather than as a handful of metrics on a weekly or quarterly report.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Venkatachalam D.

CEO & Founder - 10decoders : 200+ engineers revolutionizing Healthcare & Fintech
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The key to making the microservices architecture portable is to use solutions that are not tied to a single cloud platform. Too much cohesion and coupling with cloud platforms bars your ability to move between cloud platforms. Also, based on my experience with small and medium size businesses the need to move between platforms is quite rare unless the business reaches a certain volume - until then all cloud platforms offer similar capabilities.

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How can you make microservices architecture portable and interoperable across vendors and platforms?

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2

3

4

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1 Use standardized interfaces and protocols

2 Adopt containerization and orchestration

3 Follow the 12-factor app methodology

4 Use service meshes and API gateways

5 Implement event-driven architecture

6 Here’s what else to consider

Software Design

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How can you make microservices architecture portable and interoperable across vendors and platforms?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Use standardized interfaces and protocols

2 Adopt containerization and orchestration

3 Follow the 12-factor app methodology

4 Use service meshes and API gateways

5 Implement event-driven architecture

6 Here’s what else to consider

Software Design

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