Each team can develop, deploy and scale their services independently of all of the other teams. Microservices architectures don’t follow a “one size fits all” approach. Teams have the freedom to choose the best tool to solve their specific problems. As a consequence, teams building microservices can choose the best tool for each job. Analyzing the pros and cons of microservice architecture vs. monolithic architecture will help you understand which design works best for your organization and business needs. The first step to comparing microservices vs. monolithic applications is to see when they outmuscle each other and why.

• In a microservices architecture, each application is composed of many smaller, loosely coupled and independently deployable services.
• Shift to microservices triggers changes not only in the design but in the entire development ecosystem.
• It also lacks flexibility when it comes to modernizing or migrating to new platforms and frameworks.
• Additionally, we have described how SAP is also on a gradual journey to adapt SAP S/4HANA and the Intelligent Suite software to these architecture patterns.
• Networking services with high-throughput and sub-millisecond latency.

In a monolithic application, swapping out modules is a relatively easy process. Since the application is a single entity, all code is accessible from a single entry point. This makes it possible to modify or replace individual modules without affecting the rest of the application. As you can imagine, given their broad scope, monolithic tools tend to have huge code bases.

Cons of monolithic architecture

The application consists of several components including the StoreFrontUI, which implements the user interface, along with some backend services for checking credit, maintaining inventory and shipping orders. Design an architecture that structures the application as a single deployable/executable component that uses a single database. For example, if there is a memory leak in one service then only that service is affected.

Changes in one component usually affect the rest of the system. So when some part of an application needs an update, it often requires updating and redeploying the entire system. Being a distributed system, it is much more complex than monolithic applications. Its complexity increases with the increase in a number of microservices. SOA evolved in order to deal with the problems in monolithic architecture and became popular in the early 2000s. In SOA, the large application is split up into multiple smaller services that are deployed independently.

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Deployment – Any change order requires the redeployment of the entire monolith. Easy deployment with one executable file makes deployment easier. An ancient example of a monolithic dome is that of the Mausoleum of Theodoric in Ravenna, Italy, the roof of which is made from a single stone. Chandler Harris is a marketing strategist and writer for Atlassian.

It consists of video lectures, code labs, and a weekly ask-me-anything video conference repeated in multiple timezones. Testing is more difficult as compared to Monolith applications. Developers must deal with the additional complexity of creating a distributed system. Maintenance — If Application is too large and complex to understand entirely, it is challenging to make changes fast and correctly. Simple to develop — At the beginning of a project it is much easier to go with Monolithic Architecture. Application integration — integration with other services (e.g. via messaging or REST API).

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It is important to consider these factors when deciding whether or not to use monolithic architecture for a project. A microservices project that morphs into an SOA project will likely buckle under its own weight. Microservices’ significant benefits come with significant challenges. Moving from monolith to microservices means a lot more management complexity – a lot more services, created by a lot more teams, deployed in a lot more places.

In production, there is also the operational complexity of deploying and managing a system comprised of many different service types. Monolithic applications can also be challenging to scale when different modules have conflicting resource requirements. Simple to scale horizontally by running multiple copies behind a load balancer. AWS Lambda lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers.

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This difference between monolithic and microservices encourages companies to migrate their rapidly-growing applications to microservices to drive agility and enable a more cost-effective approach to development. Each module in a microservices application has its own business logic, database, and often an individual tech stack that can be completely different from the rest of the system. As a result, you can deploy and scale microservices independently. All this provides great flexibility both for business and engineering teams. Monolithic architecture is a classic approach to building an application as one undivided unit. Such applications consist of several layers – user interface, business logic, and data access that connects to a database.

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All code is contained in a single module, making it easy to manage and scalability. This allows the site to handle increases in traffic without breaking down. Lack of flexibility – A monolithic application is less flexible than a microservices architecture. Development sprawl – Microservices add more complexity compared to a monolith architecture, since there are more services in more places created by multiple teams. If development sprawl isn’t properly managed, it results in slower development speed and poor operational performance. Atlassian followed the path to microservices in 2018 after we faced growing and scaling challenges with Jira and Confluence.

Finally, we automated as much as we could, including the migration process itself. We created our own dashboard to view all migrations effectively in real time. The benefits of Vertigo include increased deployment speed, disaster recovery, reduced cost, and higher performance. This allows us to get to our target faster while delivering more incremental value to customers along the way.

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Barrier to technology adoption – Any changes in the framework or language affects the entire application, making changes often expensive and time-consuming. Easy debugging – With all code located in one place, it’s easier to follow a request and find an issue. Easy deployment – One executable file or directory makes deployment easier.

Why is monolithic architecture important?

As Atlassian grows, microservices enable us to scale teams and geographic locations more reliably by splitting along lines of service ownership. Before we started Vertigo, Atlassian had five different development centers around the world. These distributed teams were constrained by a centralized monolith and we needed to support them in an autonomous fashion. Modular programs are also more adaptable to iterative development processes and Agile practices compared to monolithic programs. They are also more scalable and can be tested individually due to loose coupling between the various components.

When monoliths grow too big it may be time to transition to microservices

Adding or removing services without affecting the entire application is difficult. It can be more expensive to scale a monolithic application than a microservices application. Higher performance and scalability – A monolithic application can handle increases in traffic or load more easily than a microservices architecture. Companies will benefit from a monolithic or microservices architecture, depending on the business model.

Monoliths have a simple structure and can be built fast, which makes them a good starting point for an MVP or any other small application. However, if you design a large system with rich functionality and global coverage, consider microservices from the beginning to avoid costly technical debt in the future. As the number of services grows, so do the number of communication points and the overall advantages of microservices over monolithic complexity of the system. It requires more resources to support, coordinate and orchestrate the infrastructure. Not to mention the challenge to create frictionless communication between services and autonomous teams. If you are curious to learn more about how adopting microservices affects business outcomes, check our separate blog post on the benefits of microservices architecture.

In the microservices model, components are modular, functioning independently, and coupled together as needed for optimal functionality. The main idea behind SOA was to separate the application into smaller, independent components or services that can be developed, deployed, and maintained independently. This approach allows for greater flexibility, scalability, and fault tolerance, making it easier to adapt to changing business needs and technological advancements. Developer tools/IDEs are oriented on building monolithic applications and don’t provide explicit support for developing distributed applications. I asked ChatGPT-4 about a real-world software architecture problem in my company which is modernization of legacy monolithic application to cloud-native microservices.

You want a clean, fast process and infrastructure to meet customer satisfaction goals. With a large infrastructure migration with a lot of people involved, the business wants to know about the return on investment, said Mike Tria, Head of Platform at Atlassian. It’s very important to keep up communications with the executive team, stakeholders, customers, partners, and the rest of the R&D teams. Ensure they know what you’re doing, including expected benefits. Lack of clear ownership – As more services are introduced, so are the number of teams running those services. Over time it becomes difficult to know the available services a team can leverage and who to contact for support.

We need to redeploy the whole application even for a small change. It is difficult to adopt any new technology which is well suited for a particular functionality as it affects the whole application, both in terms of time and cost. Easier debugging and testing Since a monolithic app is a single indivisible unit, you can run end-to-end testing much faster, Easier to run the test.