Microservices are a software development approach where a single application is composed of small,

independent components that communicate with each other through well-defined interfaces. This architecture
contrasts with traditional monolithic designs, where different functionalities are tightly integrated into a single
codebase.

Microservices design patterns are a set of methodologies that provide solutions to recurrent design problems.
Think of them as templates that can be used in the creation of microservices applications. These patterns are
particularly useful when developing complex applications with a large number of microservices.

The Need for Microservices Design Patterns

Managing a microservices architecture involves a variety of complex challenges that are seldom encountered in
traditional monolithic systems. These challenges include:

 Service orchestration: Ensuring that multiple, independent services communicate seamlessly to

execute complex business processes.

 Fault tolerance: In a distributed system, a failure in one service shouldn’t lead to a system-wide
collapse.

 Data consistency: Unlike monolithic systems where you can rely on ACID transactions in a single
database, microservices often have their own databases, making transactional consistency a big
concern.

 Service discoverability: How services locate each other in a dynamically scaling environment.

To address these challenges systematically, developers can leverage microservices design patterns. These are
tested solutions that serve as templates for solving recurring design problems. They guide development teams
towards best practices in microservices development, and provide structures that make it easier to create
complex but stable systems.

Top 10 Design Patterns in Microservices Architecture

There are numerous microservices design patterns that you can use, each with their unique advantages and
use cases. Here are some of the more important patterns:

1. Service Registry

A service registry is like a map for your services; it keeps track of all the services in your system, making it
easier for them to find each other.

Every service in your system needs to register itself with the service registry when it starts up, and deregister
when it shuts down. Other services can then query the service registry to locate the services they need to
interact with. This allows your system to be dynamic and adaptable, as services can come and go as required
without disrupting the overall functionality.

2. Circuit Breaker

A circuit breaker is used to detect failures and encapsulate the logic of preventing a failure from constantly
recurring. Circuit breakers could be triggered due to bugs in one or more microservices, temporary external
system failure, or unexpected operating conditions.

In a microservices architecture, you employ the circuit breaker pattern to monitor the interaction between
services. If a service is failing or responding slowly, the circuit breaker trips and prevents further calls to the
service, thus preventing a system-wide failure. Once the service is back up, the circuit breaker resets, and
things go back to normal.

3. API Gateway

An API gateway acts as a single entry point into your system for all clients. This can be especially beneficial if
you have multiple client apps, such as a web app and a mobile app, as it allows you to maintain a single API
for all clients, simplifying client-side code.
The API gateway can handle requests in one of two ways. It could route requests to the appropriate services
directly, or it could use a process known as composition, where it would combine data from multiple services
and return the aggregate result to the client. This not only simplifies client-side code but also makes your
system more efficient and user-friendly.

4. Event-Driven Architecture

In an event-driven architecture, when a service performs an action that other services need to know about, it
emits an event—a record of the action. Other services then react to the event as necessary. This is a powerful
way to decouple services and allows for highly scalable and robust systems.

This architecture allows you to build systems that are more resilient to failure, as the services do not need to
be aware of each other. If one service fails, it does not affect the others. Additionally, this architecture allows
for high scalability, as you can add new services to the system without affecting existing ones.

5. Database per Service

In a traditional monolithic application, you would have a single database that all services interact with.
However, in a microservices architecture, each service has its own database.

Why is this beneficial? Well, it allows each service to be decoupled from the others, which means that a failure
in one service does not affect the others. Furthermore, it allows for better performance, as each service can be
optimized independently based on its specific needs.

6. Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS)

CQRS is a microservices design pattern that separates read and write operations. In traditional systems, the
same data model is often used for both these operations. However, CQRS advocates for a different approach.
It proposes the use of separate models for update (Command) and read (Query) operations. This segregation
enables you to optimize each model for its specific purpose, thereby improving performance and scalability.

However, implementing CQRS is not without its challenges. It can complicate your system due to the need to
synchronize two data models. But, when applied correctly, it can significantly enhance the flexibility and
performance of your system.

7. Externalized Configuration

The externalized configuration pattern advocates for the separation of configuration from the code. This
separation allows you to modify the behavior of your application without the need for code changes or system
restarts.

This pattern is particularly useful in microservices architectures where you may have multiple instances of a
service running with different configurations. By externalizing the configuration, you can manage all instances
efficiently. However, it does require a robust configuration management system to avoid configuration drift.

8. Saga Pattern

The saga pattern is used to ensure data consistency across multiple services in a microservices architecture. In
traditional monolithic systems, transactions are usually managed using a two-phase commit. However, in a
microservices architecture, where services are loosely coupled and distributed, this approach is not practical.

The saga pattern proposes an alternative solution. It suggests breaking a transaction into multiple local
transactions. Each local transaction updates data within a single service and publishes an event. Other services
listen to these events and perform their local transactions. If a local transaction fails, compensating
transactions are executed to undo the changes.

9. Bulkhead Pattern

The bulkhead pattern is a microservices design pattern that helps to prevent failures in one part of a system
from cascading to other parts. It does so by isolating elements of an application into pools so that if one fails,
the others continue to function.
This pattern is inspired by the bulkheads in a ship. Just as a ship is divided into watertight compartments to
prevent it from sinking if one part is breached, an application can be divided into isolated groups to protect it
from failures.

10. Backends for Frontends (BFF)

The BFF pattern proposes the creation of separate backend services for different types of clients (like desktop,
mobile, etc.). This allows you to tailor the backend services to the specific needs of each client, thereby
improving user experience and performance.

However, this pattern can lead to code duplication if not managed properly. Therefore, it is crucial to strike a
balance between customization and code reuse when using the BFF pattern.

Learn more in our detailed guide to microservices architecture

How to Choose Design Patterns in Microservices

Choosing the right design patterns for your microservices architecture is critical for building a robust and
scalable system. Here are a few factors to consider while making your choice.

 Assess service interdependencies: If your services are highly interdependent, a transactional

pattern like the saga pattern might be beneficial. On the other hand, if your services are more
isolated, patterns like bulkhead can help prevent cascading failures.

 Evaluate resilience requirements: Different patterns offer different levels of resilience. For
instance, the bulkhead pattern can improve resilience by preventing failures from cascading. Evaluate
how crucial resilience is for your system and choose patterns accordingly.

 Consider security implications: Some patterns may have security implications. For example, the
externalized configuration pattern requires a secure configuration management system to protect
sensitive configuration information.

 Reusability and future-proofing: Design patterns like backends for frontends can enhance
reusability by allowing you to tailor backends for different clients. Meanwhile, patterns like CQRS can
future-proof your system by providing flexibility and scalability.

Microservices Delivery with Codefresh

The Codefresh Software Delivery Platform helps you answer important questions within your organization,
whether you’re a developer or a product manager:

 What features are deployed right now in any of your environments?

 What features are waiting in Staging?

 What features were deployed on a certain day or during a certain period?

 Where is a specific feature or version in our environment chain?

With Codefresh, you can answer all of these questions by viewing one dashboard, our Applications Dashboard
that can help you visualize an entire microservices application in one glance:
The dashboard lets you view the following information in one place:

 Services affected by each deployment

 The current state of Kubernetes components

  Deployment history and log of who deployed what and when and the pull request or Jira ticket
associated with each deployment

What Are Microservices?

Microservices is an architectural style that is increasingly adopted by software development
teams. It structures an application as a collection of small autonomous services, modeled
around a business domain.

Here are some key characteristics of a microservices architecture:

 Single responsibility: Each microservice is designed around a single business

capability or function.

 Independence: Microservices can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently.

They run within their own process and communicate with other services via well-
defined APIs (application programming interfaces).

 Decentralization: Microservices architecture favors a decentralized model of data

management, where each service has its own database to ensure loose coupling.

 Fault isolation: A failure in one service does not impact the functionality of other
services. This aspect improves the resilience of the system.

 Polyglot: Microservices can potentially use any programming language. A

microservices pattern allows developers to choose the most suitable technology stack
(programming languages, databases, software environment) for each service.

 Containerization: Microservices often take advantage of containerization

technologies (like Docker) and orchestration systems (like Kubernetes) for
automating deployment, scaling, and management of applications.

Microservices architecture offers various benefits such as flexibility in using different

technologies, ease of understanding, adaptability, and scalability. However, it also brings its
own set of challenges such as data consistency, service coordination, and increased
complexity due to distributed system concerns like network latency, fault tolerance, and
message serialization.

How Kubernetes Supports

Microservices Architecture
Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform designed to automate the
deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It groups containers that
make up an application into logical units for easy management and discovery.

Kubernetes provides a platform to schedule and run containers on clusters of physical or

virtual machines. By abstracting the underlying infrastructure, it provides a degree of
portability across cloud and on-premises environments. It also provides a rich set of features
including service discovery, load balancing, secret and configuration management, rolling
updates, and self-healing capabilities.

Kubernetes supports the microservices architecture in several ways:

 It provides a robust foundation on which to deploy and run your microservices.

 It provides services such as service discovery and load balancing that are critical for
running a microservices architecture.

 It provides the necessary tooling and APIs for automating the deployment, scaling,
and management of your microservices.

Managing and Maintaining

Microservices with Kubernetes
Deploying Microservices to Kubernetes
Deploying microservices to Kubernetes typically involves creating a Kubernetes Deployment
(or a similar object such as a StatefulSet) for each microservice. A Deployment specifies how
many replicas of a microservice to run, which container image to use, and how to configure
the microservice.

Once the Deployment is created, Kubernetes will schedule the specified number of
microservice replicas to run on nodes in the cluster. It will also monitor these replicas to
ensure they continue running. If a replica fails, Kubernetes will automatically restart it.

Scaling Microservices on Kubernetes

Scaling microservices on Kubernetes involves adjusting the number of replicas specified in
the Deployment. Increasing the number of replicas allows the microservice to handle more
load. Decreasing the number of replicas reduces the resources used by the microservice.

Kubernetes also supports automatic scaling of microservices based on CPU usage or other
application-provided metrics. This allows the microservice to automatically adjust to changes
in load without manual intervention.

Monitoring Microservices with Kubernetes

Monitoring microservices in a Kubernetes environment involves collecting metrics from the
Kubernetes nodes, the Kubernetes control plane, and the microservices themselves.

Kubernetes provides built-in metrics for nodes and the control plane, and these metrics can be
collected and visualized using tools like Prometheus and Grafana.
For the applications running within each microservice, you can use application performance
monitoring (APM) tools to collect detailed performance data. These tools can provide
insights into service response times, error rates, and other important performance indicators.

Debugging Microservices in a Kubernetes

Environment
Debugging microservices in a Kubernetes environment involves examining the logs and
metrics of the microservices, and potentially attaching a debugger to the running
microservice.

Kubernetes provides a built-in mechanism for collecting and viewing logs. It also provides
metrics that can help diagnose performance issues. A new feature is the kubectl debug node
command, which lets you deploy a Kubernetes pod to a node that you want to troubleshoot.
This is useful when you cannot access a node using an SSH connection.

If these tools are not sufficient, you can attach a debugger to the running microservice.
However, this is more complex in a Kubernetes environment due to the fact that the
microservices are running in containers on potentially many different nodes.

Implementing Continuous
Delivery/Continuous Deployment (CD) with
Kubernetes
Kubernetes provides a solid foundation for implementing continuous delivery or continuous
deployment (CD) for microservices. The Kubernetes Deployment object provides a
declarative way to manage the desired state of your microservices. This makes it easy to
automate the process of deploying, updating, and scaling your microservices.In addition,
Kubernetes provides built-in support for rolling updates. This allows you to gradually roll out
changes to your microservices, reducing the risk of introducing a breaking change. Open
source tools like Argo Rollouts provide more reliable rollback functionality, as well as
support for progressive deployment strategies likeblue/green deployments and canary
releases.

6 Best Practices for Microservices

on Kubernetes
Here are a few ways you can implement microservices in Kubernetes more effectively.

1. Manage Traffic with Ingress

Managing traffic in a microservices architecture can be complex. With many independent
services, each with its own unique endpoint, routing requests to the correct service can be a
challenge. This is where Kubernetes Ingress comes in.

Ingress is an API object that provides HTTP and HTTPS routing to services within a cluster
based on host and path. Essentially, it acts as a reverse proxy, routing incoming requests to
the appropriate service. This allows you to expose multiple services under the same IP
address, simplifying your application’s architecture and making it easier to manage.

In addition to simplifying routing, Ingress also provides other features such as SSL/TLS
termination, load balancing, and name-based virtual hosting. These features can greatly
improve the performance and security of your microservices application.

2. Leverage Kubernetes to Scale

Microservices
One of the key benefits of using a microservices architecture is the ability to scale individual
services independently. This allows you to allocate resources more efficiently and handle
varying loads more effectively. Kubernetes provides several tools to help you scale your
microservices.

One such tool is the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA). The HPA automatically scales the
number of pods in a deployment based on observed CPU utilization or, with custom metrics
support, on any other application-provided metrics. This allows your application to
automatically respond to changes in load, ensuring that you have the necessary resources to
handle incoming requests.

Kubernetes also supports manual scaling, which allows you to increase or decrease the
number of pods in a Deployment on-demand. This can be useful for planned events, such as a
marketing campaign, where you expect a temporary increase in load.

3. Use Namespaces
In a large, complex application, organization is key. Kubernetes namespaces provide a way to
divide cluster resources between multiple users or teams. Each namespace provides a scope
for names, and the names of resources in one namespace do not overlap with the names in
other namespaces.

Using namespaces can greatly simplify the management of your microservices. By grouping
related services into the same namespace, you can manage them as a unit, applying policies
and access controls at the namespace level.

4. Implement Health Checks

It is essential to implement health checks for your microservices. Health checks are a way to
monitor the status of your services and ensure that they are functioning correctly.
Kubernetes provides two types of health checks: readiness probes and liveness probes.
Readiness probes are used to determine whether a pod is ready to accept requests, while
liveness probes are used to determine whether a pod is still running.

Health checks are a crucial part of maintaining a resilient and responsive application. They
allow Kubernetes to automatically replace pods that are not functioning correctly, ensuring
that your application remains available and responsive.

5. Use Service Mesh

A service mesh is a dedicated infrastructure layer for handling service-to-service
communication in a microservices architecture. It’s responsible for the reliable delivery of
requests through the complex topology of services that constitute a microservices application.

In the context of microservices on Kubernetes, a service mesh provides several benefits,

including traffic management, service discovery, load balancing, and failure recovery. It also
provides powerful capabilities like circuit breakers, timeouts, retries, and more, which can be
vital for maintaining the stability and performance of your microservices.

While Kubernetes does provide some of these capabilities out of the box, a service mesh
takes it to the next level, giving you fine-grained control over your service interactions.
Whether you choose Istio, Linkerd, or any other service mesh platform, it’s a powerful tool to
have in your Kubernetes toolbox.

6. Design Each Microservice for a Single

Responsibility
Designing each microservice with a single responsibility is a foundational principle of
microservices architecture and is just as critical when deploying on Kubernetes. The single
responsibility principle promotes cohesion and helps in achieving a clean separation of
concerns.

In the context of microservices running on Kubernetes, a focused scope for each service
ensures easier scaling, monitoring, and management. Kubernetes allows you to specify
different scaling policies, resource quotas, and security configurations at the microservice
level. By ensuring that each microservice has a single responsibility, you can take full
advantage of these features, tailoring each aspect of the infrastructure to the specific needs of
each service.

Furthermore, a single-responsibility design simplifies debugging and maintenance. When an

issue arises, it’s much easier to diagnose and fix problems in a service that has a well-defined,
singular role. This is especially beneficial in a Kubernetes environment where logs, metrics,
and other debugging information can be voluminous and complex due to the distributed
nature of the system.

Learn more in our detailed guide to microservices best practices (coming soon)
Microservices Delivery with
Codefresh
Codefresh helps you answer important questions within your organization, whether you’re a
developer or a product manager:

 What features are deployed right now in any of your environments?

 What features are waiting in Staging?

 What features were deployed on a certain day or during a certain period?

 Where is a specific feature or version in our environment chain?

With Codefresh, you can answer all of these questions by viewing one dashboard, our
Applications Dashboard that can help you visualize an entire microservices application in one
glance:
The dashboard lets you view the following information in one place:

 Services affected by each deployment

 The current state of Kubernetes components

  Deployment history and log of who deployed what and when and the pull request or
Jira ticket associated with each deployment

What Are Microservices?

A microservices architecture is a method of developing software systems that are split into
multiple, independent, and small modules. These modules, or ‘services,’ run in their own
process and communicate with each other using lightweight mechanisms, often HTTP
resource APIs. Each service is fully functional and independently deployable, often owned by
a small team.

The microservices architecture advocates for dividing a single application into a suite of
small services, each running its process and communicating with lightweight mechanisms.
These services are built around business capabilities and independently deployable by fully
automated machinery. Moreover, there is a bare minimum of centralized management of
these services.

Microservices come with several advantages. They provide flexibility in using technologies
and scalability as per the requirement. They also offer better fault isolation: if one
microservice fails, the others will continue to work. However, managing, monitoring, and
debugging microservices can be complex.

What Is SOA?
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is an architectural pattern in which application
components provide services to other components. This is done through a communication
protocol, served over a network. The principles of SOA are vendor-agnostic and can apply to
any vendor, product, or technology.

SOA is all about reusing and sharing. This architecture is designed to enhance the efficiency
of existing IT systems while adding new functionalities. In SOA, services use protocols
which describe how they communicate with each other, involving specific policies and
contracts.

SOA was intended to allow greater agility. Since services are reused, the business can adapt
to changing conditions and requirements more quickly. However, it can be challenging to
implement SOA effectively due to the high upfront cost, the need for a shift in corporate
culture, and the necessity of a high level of discipline to maintain service interfaces and
quality over the long term.

Microservices vs SOA: Key

Differences
1. Design Philosophy and Principles
  Microservices are all about breaking down an app into its smallest components, then
developing and deploying each independently. The focus is on ‘bounded context,’
where each service has its own database and domain logic.

 SOA emphasizes reusability. Services are designed to be reused across multiple

applications and are typically larger and more general purpose. The focus is on
‘shared context’, where different applications share the same services.

2. Service Size, Granularity, and

Independence
 Microservices are small, fine-grained, and independently deployable services. They
focus on doing one thing well and are loosely coupled. This allows for a high degree
of independence and flexibility, but can lead to complexities in coordinating and
managing these services.

 SOA is typically composed of large, coarse-grained, interdependent services. These

services are tightly coupled, which can lead to better coordination but less flexibility.
They are designed to be reused by many different applications across the entire
enterprise.

3. Communication, Data Management, and

Service Coordination
 In Microservices, each service has its own database, or its own set of tables within a
database, and communicates via lightweight, language-agnostic APIs. This provides a
high degree of isolation and allows each service to evolve independently, but can also
lead to difficulties in managing data consistency and integrity.

 In SOA, services typically share databases and communicate through an Enterprise

Service Bus (ESB) or similar middleware. This can lead to better data consistency and
integrity, but can also lead to a higher degree of coupling and make it more difficult
for services to evolve independently.

4. Architecture and General Design

 In Microservices, the architecture is driven by simplicity and decentralization. A
pattern such as the Tolerant Reader is often used, encouraging services to ignore the
parts of a message they don’t understand, increasing resilience and allowing for easier
evolution of services. It uses simple protocols for communication, trying to minimize
the complexity that can arise from centralized standards. This architectural style is a
reaction against the difficulties and complexities often encountered in SOA.

 In SOA, the architecture is often centered around an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) or
similar middleware, which can increase complexity, especially when used to integrate
monolithic applications. This style often results in centralized governance models and
standards that can be overly complex and inhibit change. However, some
 implementations of SOA can resemble microservices, leading to the view that
microservices might be a form of SOA “done right.”

5. Deployment, Scaling, and Evolution

 In Microservices, each service can be deployed, scaled, and evolved independently.
This allows for faster deployment cycles, more granular scaling, and the ability to
evolve services independently to meet changing business needs.

 In SOA, services are typically deployed together as part of a monolithic application.

This can lead to longer deployment cycles, less granular scaling, and more complex
development cycles. However, it can also lead to better coordination and consistency
across services.

When to Use SOA vs.

Microservices
Use Cases Best Suited for SOA
SOA is best suited for large, complex business processes that require integration of diverse
applications, often in legacy systems. It’s ideal for organizations that require a high level of
reuse and sharing of services across different applications.

For instance, SOA is often used in large enterprises where different departments need to
share the same services. It’s also commonly used in scenarios where different businesses
need to integrate their systems.

Use Cases Best Suited for Microservices

Microservices are best suited for rapidly evolving, high-scale applications where speed of
delivery is critical. They’re ideal for organizations that need to rapidly innovate and scale
their applications.

For example, microservices are often used in eCommerce applications where different
services (like user management, product catalog, and order management) need to scale
independently based on their individual needs. They’re also commonly used in cloud-native
applications where rapid deployment and scaling are essential.

How to Choose?
The choice between SOA and Microservices often comes down to your specific needs and
context. Here are some factors to consider:
  Modern architecture: Microservices is a more modern architecture, supported by a
wide range of tools and technologies, especially in the cloud native space. Prefer
microservices if you are building a new application and want to use the latest
technologies, especially if your application is cloud native.

 Size and complexity of your systems: If you have a large, complex system that
requires integration of diverse applications, SOA might be a better choice. If you have
a smaller, more focused application that needs to scale and evolve rapidly,
microservices might be more suitable.

 Need for reuse and sharing: If you need a high level of reuse and sharing of services
across different applications, SOA might be a better fit. If you need each service to
evolve independently, microservices might be a better choice.

 Cultural and organizational fit: SOA requires a high level of discipline and a shift
in corporate culture to be successful. Microservices require a high level of
decentralization and autonomy. Make sure to consider whether your organization is
ready for these changes.

Learn more in our detailed guide to microservices architecture

Microservices Delivery with

Codefresh
Codefresh helps you answer important questions within your organization, whether you’re a
developer or a product manager:

 What features are deployed right now in any of your environments?

 What features are waiting in Staging?

 What features were deployed on a certain day or during a certain period?

 Where is a specific feature or version in our environment chain?

With Codefresh, you can answer all of these questions by viewing one dashboard, our
Applications Dashboard that can help you visualize an entire microservices application in one
glance:
The dashboard lets you view the following information in one place:

 Services affected by each deployment

 The current state of Kubernetes components

  Deployment history and log of who deployed what and when and the pull request or
Jira ticket associated with each deployment