Related Architecture Styles and Use Cases

Microservices are on top of the hype at this point. At the same time, there are noises around certain other architecture styles, for instance, serverless architecture. Which one is good? Are they competing against each other? What are the appropriate scenarios and the best ways to leverage microservices? These are the obvious questions raised by many developers.

In this chapter, we will analyze various other architecture styles and establish the similarities and relationships between microservices and other buzz words such as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Twelve-Factor Apps, serverless computing, Lambda architectures, DevOps, Cloud, Containers, and Reactive Microservices. Twelve-Factor Apps defines a set of software engineering principles to develop applications targeting cloud. We will also analyze typical use cases of microservices and review some of the popular frameworks available for the rapid development of microservices.

By the end of this chapter, you will have learned about the following:

• Relationship of microservices with SOA and Twelve-Factor Apps
• Link to serverless computing and Lambda architecture style used in the context of Big Data, cognitive computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT)
• Supporting architecture elements such as Cloud, Containers, and DevOps
• Reactive Microservices
• Typical use cases of microservices architecture
• A few popular microservices frameworks