SOA vs Microservices Architecture

In this tutorial, we are going to cover the differences between SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) and Microservices Architecture. So, before going to differences, we will understand what is SOA, the advantages of SOA, the disadvantages of SOA, and the features of SOA, and then we will see what is Microservices architecture, the advantages of microservices, the disadvantages of microservices, and the features of microservices, and then Finally, we will see what are the differences between microservices architecture and SOA.

SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) vs Microservices Architecture

What is SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture)?

SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) is an architectural pattern. In this pattern, we create a collection of services, and these services communicate with each other to execute a function using the communication protocols. In this architecture, the services are loosely coupled. It means a service interacting with another service might not know the technical details of that service.

What are the advantages of SOA?

There are some advantages to using SOA:

It is very easy to edit or update service.
Reusability is the main advantage of SOA architecture. It means, we can reuse the service of an existing system.
Scalability is very easy. So, we can easily enhance the performance, functionality of a service.
Services are platform-independent. It means services communicate with other applications through a common language. So, services can provide API in different languages E.g. C#, PHP, JavaScript, and etc.
In this architecture, services have the same directory structure. It means customers can access the service data from an equivalent directory every time.
Services are usually small in size as compared to the full-fledge application.
Each service is independent of other services. So, we can utilize one service in multiple applications at the same time.

What are the disadvantages of SOA?

There are some disadvantages to SOA:

In SOA, we need a high bandwidth server. Because some web services need to send and receive messages and knowledge frequently. It means, they reach high requests per day. So, you need a high-speed server.
It is very expensive in terms of development, human resources, and technology.
When two services will communicate with each other then the response time will increase.

What are the features of SOA?

There are some features of SOA:

Loose coupling is the main feature of SOA. It means, we can easily integrate a service with any system.
Reusability of a service. It means we can reuse the service of an existing system. It will decrease development time.
The standard messaging format usually XML based.

What is Microservices Architecture?

Microservice is an approach to create small services. Each service is running in its own space and can communicate via messaging. Each microservice works completely independently, but on the other hand, they also all rely on each other. It means that each microservice has its own database.

So, we can describe microservice in these below simple points:

A microservice is responsible for a single piece of function.
A microservice is individually deployable.
A microservice is replaceable.
Each service has its own database.
A microservice consists of one or more processes.

What are the advantages of Microservices?

There are some advantages to using microservices:

It is very easy to build and maintain.
Smaller and faster deployment.
Technology diversity. It means it is very easy to use different technologies.
Independent deployment.
Ease of understanding.
It helps to divide an application into smaller parts.

What are the disadvantages of Microservices?

There are below some disadvantages of Microservices:

Communication between services is very complex. In case if your application consists of hundreds or thousands of microservices, then the application becomes really complex. Especially when the services talk to each other.
More resources needed to use multiple services.
Debugging is harder.
Testing is harder.
Cascading of problems to other services.
Handling the messages in the queue is very hard.
Latency: every call to another service adds some latency and the user has to wait longer until the result comes.
Separate deployment of each service.

What are the characteristics of Microservices?

There are some below characteristics of microservices:

It is responsible for a single capability.
It is individually deployable.
It consists of one or more processes.
It owns its own data store.
It is replaceable.
A small team can maintain a handful of Microservices.