Technology as a catalyst for microservices evolution

Emerging technologies have made us rethink the way we build software systems. For example, a few decades ago, we couldn't even imagine a distributed application without a two-phase commit. Later, NoSQL databases made us think differently.

Similarly, these kinds of paradigm shifts in technology have reshaped all layers of software architecture.

The emergence of HTML 5, CSS3, and the advancement of mobile applications repositioned user interfaces. Client-side JavaScript frameworks, such as Angular, Ember, React, Backbone, and more, are immensely popular due to their capabilities around responsive and adaptive designs.

With cloud adoptions steamed into the mainstream, Platform as a Services (PaaS) providers, such as Pivotal CF, AWS, Sales Force, IBM Bluemix, Redhat OpenShift, and more, made us rethink the way we build middleware components. The container revolution created by Docker radically influenced the infrastructure space. Container orchestration tools, such as Mesosphere DCOS, made infrastructure management much easier. Serverless added further easiness in application managements.

Integration landscape has also changed with the emerging Integration Platform as a Services (iPaaS), such as Dell Boomi, Informatica, MuleSoft, and more. These tools helped organizations stretch integration boundaries beyond the traditional enterprise.

NoSQL and NewSQL have revolutionized the space of the database. A few years ago, we had only a few popular databases, all based on relational data modeling principles. Today, we have a long list of databases: Hadoop, Cassandra, CouchDB, Neo 4j, and NuoDB, to name a few. Each of these databases addresses certain specific architectural problems.