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<h1>Microservices</h1>

<p>Microservices are an application architecture style where independent,

self-contained programs with a single purpose each can communicate with

each other over a network. Typically, these microservices are able to be

deployed independently because they have strong separation of

responsibilities via a well-defined specification with significant

backwards compatibility to avoid sudden dependency breakage.</p>

<h2>Why are microservices getting so much buzz?</h2>

<p>Microservices follow in a long trend of software architecture patterns

that become all the rage. Previously,

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Object_Request_Broker_Architecture">CORBA</a>

and (mostly XML-based) service-oriented architectures (SOA) were the

hip buzzword among

<a href="http://www.igloocoder.com/2271/ivory-tower-architect">ivory tower architects</a>.</p>

<p>However, microservices have more substance because they are typically based

on <a href="/application-programming-interfaces.html">RESTful APIs</a> that are far

easier for actual software developers to use compared with the previous

complicated XML-based schemas thrown around by enterprise software companies.

In addition, successful applications begin with a monolith-first approach using

a single, shared application codebase and deployment. Only after the application

proves its usefulness is it then broken down into microservice components to

ease further development and deployment. This approach is called the

"monolith-first" or

"<a href="http://martinfowler.com/bliki/MonolithFirst.html">MonolithFirst</a>" pattern.</p>

<h3>Microservice resources</h3>

<p>Martin Fowler's

<a href="http://martinfowler.com/articles/microservices.html">microservices</a>

article is one of the best in-depth explanations for what microservices are

and why to consider them as an architectural pattern.</p>

<p><a href="http://dev.otto.de/2015/09/30/on-monoliths-and-microservices/">On monoliths and microservices</a>

provides some advice on using microservices in a fairly early stage of

a software project's lifecycle.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.skybert.net/python/developing-a-restful-micro-service-in-python/">Developing a RESTful microservice in Python</a>

is a good story of how an aging Java project was replaced with a

microservice built with Python and Flask.</p>

<h3>What's next after learning about microservices?</h3>

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