An example of microservice architecture implementation

Today’s buzzwords are in full command on the tech scene. Microservice architecture is on the rise and you are probably wondering, what is an example of microservice architecture implementation.

The beginning

Let’s start at the beginning with a definition of microservice architecture, according to Wikipedia, “In a microservices architecture, services are fine-grained and the protocols are lightweight. The benefit of decomposing an application into different smaller services is that it improves modularity. This makes the application easier to understand, develop, test and become more resilient to architecture erosion.” Read about the differences between APIs and microservices.

Companies need to be able to quickly transform, slow is simply an outdated word. To acclimate faster, businesses can’t be bogged down by companies that won’t adapt to digital transformation. So, how can microservice architecture implementation help businesses integrate to change faster? For businesses to adjust to the changing pace of technological advances, they cannot be constricted by IT’s inability to move ahead.

Thanks to the swift abilities of microservice architecture and APIs, companies are now able to address their problems and keep pace with technology standards. Before microservice architecture, it simply took twice as long to fix a problem. Now turnaround is rapid. This brings about a better bottom line for any company. Discover how APIs and microservices are working for the good of digital transformation.

Microservice architecture implementation–an example

Since microservice architecture offers the ability to be more flexible for a company, a perfect example of microservice architecture is when a company has a legacy system and is unable to keep up with changing technology. A full-proof example is Walmart in the U.S, see Baseline’s magazine article. They utilized microservice architecture to successfully update their old system and address the distinct problems that they were facing online.

Problems

With speed and accuracy being a daily requirement in the digital world, customers no longer take to slow processing. But sometimes, security can be an issue as well. It’s important to look at issues and proceed. According to Computer Weekly, “analysts warn that there can be hidden security complexity.”

Yet, for Walmart, they wanted a seamless and quick customer experience turnaround. A system that is outdated simply won’t cut it anymore. Walmart had some issues to address.

For starters, with over six million views per minute on their website taking place, Walmart couldn’t keep up. So, what did they do? They embraced microservice architecture. At the time of the update, they had an antiquated system in place from 2005. Times have certainly changed!

In order to keep up with the demand, Walmart made the decision to update its old system and changed the platform to a microservices architecture. By taking on the change to migrate the system with microservice architecture, they discovered favorable results. From higher conversion turnaround literally overnight, their orders went up nearly instantly and there was zero downtime on the main sale days of Black Friday. Don’t be disrupted! Learn why APIs and microservices are changing the way people think.

Excellent achievements

What does this achieve in the end for Walmart? Huge savings for the company for starters. Further, by moving off the legacy system that was more costly to maintain, they now have a more streamlined bottom line. At the end of the day, excellent achievements all around.

Not to be left in the dark, other companies such as Amazon, Spotify and Netflix, have embraced microservice architecture because the benefits of an accelerated turnaround work best for digital transformation.