Developing Microservices with Java for Business Applications

Organizations taking advantage of back-end development services that utilize microservices have reported numerous benefits, including releasing software to the market much faster. Here are six more benefits organizations realize from using microservices architecture for applications.

Microservices architecture breaks down traditional monolithic applications into more manageable and loosely coupled services. Since microservices-based apps are smaller and less complicated than monolithic ones, effective management is easier.

While building microservices architecture, software developers can do different experiments concerning different business or logic processes. For example, a developer can substitute one service or component with another if the initial one isn’t working as required.

Microservice architecture is made up of small components which are developed independently. Each service is responsible for a unique and specific task, meaning other modules cannot affect it. Furthermore, every microservice comes with its own data model and is able to manage its individual data.

Each module is loosely packed, independent, and has a different framework or stack. As a result, it can be created and modified independently. In terms of fault tolerance, large applications usually remain unaffected by a single module failure.

Building microservices eliminates technology lock-in. This approach provides the flexibility to try out or use different or new technology on an independent service.

Rolling back changes is also much easier, and there will be fewer dependency concerns. With as little code in play as possible, there’s more flexibility in using different technologies for different web services.

Microservices are individually deployable, providing organizations with more command over their own applications. The increased control is a huge advantage for organizations that want to respond quickly to changes in the current market. Organizations can also sidestep the “monolithic blues,” commonly occurring when an entire application becomes unwieldy and too large.

Microservices can be scaled easily, improving the scalability of the software application. They can be scaled horizontally, making them perfect for circumstances where scalability is a must. And since microservices are modular and tiny, they allow for quicker deployment than monolithic applications. Also, the smaller modules can be reused, which leads to resource utilization.

Since microservices are modular and tiny, it’s easier to maintain and manage complex systems. Java software application developers don’t need to update the whole system, as each module is independent. Also, since every microservice is in charge of a specific task, the chances of errors occurring when maintenance is done are less. As a result, maintaining and managing the overall system is less time-consuming and risky.

Java microservices involve a collection of applications developed using the Java programming language that works with each other to create a more extensive system. Instead of a traditional monolithic application, Java development service providers and software developers create several software applications written to operate independently.

Large and complicated Java systems can have numerous simpler and independent applications that execute themselves. These smaller modules are grouped to provide all functionalities of the overall system.

Typical argument developers bring against microservices-based applications is that it expands the security risk by increasing the risk surface. While this is true, since many microservices expose functionality to external consumers, developers must protect every service to ensure it is secure. Monolithic Java applications usually have these functionalities as internal applications that aren’t exposed to outside customers.

Developers implement security to manage access from exterior consumers and other services to secure microservices in Java. This involves security at every microservice level, using a sidecar and a shared gateway. When securing access from other services, developers implement transport layer security and message layer security using authentication and authorization.

To avoid obstacles when building Java microservices, it’s worth having some best practices in mind. Developers always follow these nine best practices to reduce the number of potential blocks in their microservices project.

Identifying business domains before you can start building Java microservices applications is vital. A business domain is a specific area of a business that has unique characteristics and requirements. Determining a domain helps your architects and software applications development team to understand different business requirements and design the microservices application based on those domains. This approach helps in reducing the complexity of microservices and makes them more manageable.

Restful APIs provide many benefits. For example, as a developer, you don’t need to install any application on the client side, the REST web services will suffice. Also, you don’t need any Java framework or SDK because the HTTPS requests to consume API gateway services are enough. You can use Spring Boot, a popular Java framework, to simplify the development and configuration process of REST web services.

Without proper communication between Java applications and services, your microservices performance can suffer seriously. To avoid that, you should implement asynchronous messaging. Asynchronous involves non-blocking protocols that follow event-driven architecture. Asynchronous messaging allows for the parallel execution of different requests, providing better resilience.

Distributed tracing is a method that addresses logging data in microservices-based applications. A unique ID is passed via the call chain of every process in a distributed topology. Generated together with a timestamp in log messages, they combine to help developers identify exact processes that have failed. Without distributed tracing enabled during the configuration process, you’ll need to look for all the data the whole process or application logged in when the issue occurred.

Event-driven architecture (EDA) is an approach that involves the production, detection, consumption, and reaction to events. In Java microservices, EDA can help to decouple services and make them more resilient to changes. If a module performs a specific work that other modules might be interested in, that module produces an event, which is a record of the already completed action. Other modules consume those actions to carry out any of the tasks required due to the action. Event-driven architecture is essential for recovery support, easy scaling, and loose coupling.

Microservices versioning is vital as it helps you to maintain several services with a single functionality without causing conflicts. This approach is essential to ensure that changes made to one microservice do not affect the other microservices that are dependent on it. Versioning includes tracking changes in system containers and attributes such as licenses, software bills of materials, and key-value pairs. The four main versioning approaches are calendar, semantic, header, and URI. Implementing versioning helps in maintaining backward compatibility and providing a seamless experience to users.

Caching helps improve microservices’ performance, scalability, and availability by minimizing roundtrips to dependencies. By caching frequently accessed data, microservices reduce the number of requests to the database, thereby improving the response time. When implementing caching, you should be careful since refreshing cache information can often impact response time, and the four main things to consider are what, where, when, and how long to cache.

A centralized logging system ensures that all Java microservices transport their logs through a standardized format. By using a centralized logging system, developers can collect and analyze log data from multiple microservices and gain insights into the system’s behavior. This best practice aids in root cause analysis and speedy error handling, which leads to improved reliability and availability. Furthermore, centralized logging can help to monitor compliance with regulatory requirements, identify usage patterns, and provide insights for future optimizations.

Adopt one of the best models to ensure a protected Java microservices framework. Implementing security measures is essential to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. This involves identifying potential security risks and implementing measures such as access controls, encryption, and authentication to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches. Additionally, regular security audits and monitoring should be conducted to identify and mitigate any potential vulnerabilities or threats.

While the Java microservices approach comes with many benefits, it has its set of challenges and limitations, which include:

• Difficult testing, logging, and monitoring
• Complex initial configuration
• Greater security risks
• Higher resource utilization
• Complex inter-service communication
• Relatively complex deployment
• Not ideal for small applications.

Microservices architecture has already proven great, but similar to anything in the world, it also comes with a few challenges. Given its numerous benefits, Java microservices development will remain a staple for any software development partner in the future. To ensure Java microservices work as intended, a software developer must have excellent coding skills and comprehensive knowledge of Java tools.