{"id":32145,"date":"2026-11-10T13:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T13:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tekrevol.com\/blogs\/?p=32145"},"modified":"2026-11-10T13:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T13:14:08","slug":"microservices-architecture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tekrevol.com\/blogs\/microservices-architecture\/","title":{"rendered":"Microservices Architecture and Design: A Practical Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microservices architecture builds one application as a set of small, independent services, and each service owns one business job. Teams release and scale each service on its own, which is the main reason the style is popular.\u00a0 This guide explains how microservices work with a diagram and an example, then gives a test for when to use it on a custom software development project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What are microservices?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Microservices split one application into small services that deploy and scale independently. Each service covers one business capability, such as payments or product search, and talks to the others through APIs or messages. The Azure Architecture Center<\/a> lists the same traits, such as services small enough for one feature team and no shared data stores.<\/p>\n

Microservices are one style of software architecture<\/a>, the set of structural decisions that shape how a system is built. The opposite style is the monolith, in which the whole application ships as one unit.<\/p>\n

How the services connect, in a diagram<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In a microservices diagram, clients reach the services through one API gateway, and each service keeps its own data store. The diagram below shows an online store with four services: catalog, cart, orders, and payments. A message broker carries events between the services, and a side strip shows the platform that runs and monitors them.<\/p>\n

\"Online<\/p>\n

Read the diagram from top to bottom. A request enters at the gateway, a service handles it, and any follow-up work travels as an event.<\/p>\n

The parts of a microservices system<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Five parts do most of the work in a microservices system: the services, an API gateway, data stores, messaging, and the platform that runs and watches them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Component<\/strong><\/td>\nWhat it does<\/strong><\/td>\nWhy it exists<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Services<\/strong><\/td>\nEach runs one business capability and can be deployed alone<\/td>\nKeeps changes small and local<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
API gateway<\/strong><\/td>\nThe single entry point that routes client requests to services and handles shared jobs such as authentication<\/td>\nStops clients from calling every service directly<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Data stores<\/strong><\/td>\nEach service owns its data and schema<\/td>\nStops one schema change from breaking other services<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Messaging<\/strong><\/td>\nA broker passes events between services so they do not have to wait for each other<\/td>\nKeeps services loosely coupled<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Platform<\/strong><\/td>\nOrchestration starts and restarts services, and observability tools collect logs and traces<\/td>\nKeeps many services running and visible<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Microservices architecture usually does not include the user interface. In TekRevol’s reading, the web or mobile interface sits outside the services as a client that calls the gateway, although some teams split the interface by service too.<\/p>\n

How do microservices communicate with each other?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Microservices communicate in two ways: directly through APIs, or indirectly through messages. A direct call waits for the answer, and a message does not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
Style<\/strong><\/td>\nHow it works<\/strong><\/td>\nUse it when<\/strong><\/td>\nCost<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Synchronous (API call)<\/strong><\/td>\nOne service calls another and waits for the reply<\/td>\nThe caller needs the answer to continue, such as a payment approval<\/td>\nDelays and failures pass back up the chain<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Asynchronous (message or event)<\/strong><\/td>\nA service publishes an event to a broker, and others react later<\/td>\nSeveral services must react to one change, such as a confirmed order<\/td>\nData updates reach services at different times<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The API gateway sits between clients and services, and service discovery lets one service find the current address of another. Many small services also mean many network calls, so avoid chatty APIs and use messages where no reply is needed.<\/p>\n

Microservices design: four decisions every team makes<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Microservices design comes down to four decisions: where to draw service boundaries, who owns the data, how services communicate and how failures are contained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Decision<\/strong><\/td>\nQuestion to answer<\/strong><\/td>\nCommon mistake<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Boundaries<\/strong><\/td>\nWhich business capability does each service own?<\/td>\nSplitting before the business domain is understood<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Data ownership<\/strong><\/td>\nWhich service is the single owner of each piece of data?<\/td>\nSeveral services sharing one database schema<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Communication<\/strong><\/td>\nWhich calls must wait for a reply, and which can be events?<\/td>\nLong chains of synchronous calls<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Failure handling<\/strong><\/td>\nWhat happens when a service is slow or down?<\/td>\nNo timeouts, so one slow service drags down the rest<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The decisions rest on two plain rules: organize services around the business and give each service its own data. In practice, one service owns each piece of data, and other services reach it only through that service’s API, and our guide to microservices design patterns explains them.<\/p>\n

An online grocery order, step by step<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In this microservices example, an online grocery order passes through six services, and a slow payment does not stop the rest of the store. The example is TekRevol’s illustration and uses no real numbers. A real store would have more services and more rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Service<\/strong><\/td>\nWhat it owns<\/strong><\/td>\nHow it talks to others<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Catalog<\/strong><\/td>\nProducts and prices<\/td>\nAnswers lookups from the cart through its API<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cart<\/strong><\/td>\nThe shopper’s basket<\/td>\nCalls the catalog for prices and hands the basket to orders<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Orders<\/strong><\/td>\nOrder records and status<\/td>\nCalls payments, then publishes an “order confirmed” event<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Payments<\/strong><\/td>\nCharges and refunds<\/td>\nReplies to the orders service through its API<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Delivery slots<\/strong><\/td>\nAvailable time windows<\/td>\nListens for “order confirmed” and reserves a slot<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Notifications<\/strong><\/td>\nEmail and push messages<\/td>\nListens for “order confirmed” and sends a receipt<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The shopper checks out, and the orders service asks payments to charge the card and waits for the reply, because it cannot confirm an order without one. Once the charge succeeds, orders publishes one event, and the delivery and notification services react on their own. If payments is slow, the orders service times out and asks the shopper to retry, while other shoppers keep browsing the catalog.<\/p>\n

Benefits of microservices<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The main benefit of microservices is independence: each service can be released and scaled without touching the rest. Microsoft’s architecture guidance describes these benefits:<\/p>\n