How Are Microservices Utilized in Mobile App Development?

Introduction

We can understand the frustration that comes from encountering something completely new when you are a novice in the tech field. Tech lingo is scary! Your frustration is justified.

This is why we are here to uncomplicate things for you so that you can take another step forward in understanding technology and how it works.

Let us try to understand what microservices are.

In simple words, when you build a large application through smaller and modular enterprise applications, it is regarded as microservices architecture.

These services interact with each other by structured interfaces, implementing enhanced modularity, scalability, and maintainability as opposed to other monolithic architectures. They were officiated around the world in 2011. 

In this blog, we will target the position of microservices that is occupied in the world of mobile app development. So make sure to stick to the end with us.

Microservices in Mobile App Development

According to a report conducted by Statista in 2021, 37% of the respondent organizations around the world affirmed using microservices partially in their organization. 

Some of the instances where these microservices can be implemented in mobile app development include:

• Building an app from the ground up.

• While adding a new feature or functionality in the app.

• Reconstruction of your legacy app with app modernization methods.

• Addition of data storage to include features and services.

Hence, it is rather important to understand the significance of microservices in mobile app development. However, what makes microservices so unique as to implement them in such scenarios? 

Key Benefits of Microservices Architecture in Mobile App Development

Why is it that such a technology is a key part of developing mobile apps? We will find that out soon enough when we take a look at the features they have to offer. Some of these features are:

➰ Flexibility

Since microservices architecture deals with the macro-development of an app with micro-components, it is essential to pick the right tools for the right elements.

Hence, developing these elements with the programming language or framework meant for it is the correct method of developing them.

Individual elements facilitate effective communication or interaction without any erroneous bugs in the code.

Such an approach cannot be accomplished through monolithic apps as they are not this agile and flexible. 

📈 Scalability

The discrete elements of microservices architecture allow room for the upward or downward scaling of the components based on the needs and requirements.

Scalability also aids the user in utilizing the same app on a diverse range of devices and screens which makes things much easier and simpler. This, however, can only be achieved through individual components being highly scalable.

💫 Dynamic

Technology changing at a rapid pace is something that the world has gotten acquainted with. This creates problems for organizations developing apps based on the devices they run on.

Microservices help developers add stable and quick updates based on the dynamic requirements of different devices without hindering the app’s functionality.

🌱 Resilience

The isolation of individual components of microservices architecture provides robust resilience during updates. This implies that if a component is facing some issue, you can always utilize another without much downtime.

Additionally, the need for refurbishing the entire app due to a single component error is no longer required. 

🌀 Productivity

It becomes much more convenient to understand mobile app components through microservices architecture. The smallest piece of information can be easily deconstructed through it.

Hence, it facilitates its organization to scale its workforce based on their skill sets. This won’t require the entire team to be involved in learning the workings of a complex monolithic app. 

🏎️ Speed

The discrete elements of microservices, puts it into a league of its own, away from monolithic architecture. Such a feature comes in handy while adding a new feature, deleting, or even modifying it without changing the codebase. 

To make this possible you need to alter certain components as demanded and then examine and execute them separately without hindering the regular functionality of an app.

This leads to having no downtime while making changes in the app. 

🛠️ Maintenance

Isolated components not only boost the speed of an app but also facilitate its maintenance and debugging. Changes can be done more frequently.

This kills two birds with one stone; and reduces labor and cost. You can focus on a single component when it comes to identifying and fixing issues as there is no need to work on the entire app but on the specific component only. 

Implementing Microservices in Mobile App Development

Contrary to monolithic architecture, Microservices architecture utilizes modular, loosely-integrated components that interact through well-structured APIs.

One way to incorporate microservices in mobile app development is by converting monoliths into microservices. However, decomposing components from monoliths to microservices is a meticulous process. It requires multiple strategies to successfully migrate all the components. 

💡 Strategies for Migrating to Containers

Migration from monolithic architectures to containerized microservices helps organizations in enhancing flexibility, scalability, as well as resilience. 

Some of these strategies are mentioned below:

👉🏼 Phased Approach

Such an approach simultaneously breaks monoliths into microservices steadily starting with components that can reap the maximum benefits for the app.

It curtails risks and offers much time to learn and adapt processes over time. 

👉🏼 Hybrid Architecture

This approach allows the seamless integration of some parts of monoliths and some migrating towards microservices.

Such an approach not only helps out an organization unable to fully commit to migration but also harnesses benefits from both sides of architecture.

👉🏼 Big Bang Approach

Refurbish an entire application with microservices from square one.

Even though such a strategy might require specific resources inviting higher risks, this lets organizations completely exploit the benefits of containers and microservices. 

👉🏼 Re-Platforming

Such an approach can shift a monolithic application to a container platform without disseminating it into microservices.

This also helps in picking an alternative from the complexities of a complete migration of the app to microservices.

Additional benefits include containerization benefits like enhanced scalability and deployment. 

Communication between Microservices

Speaking of the benefits Microservices provides, you must be wondering about its communication process and working principle.

Effective communication is one of the key factors why microservices can function seamlessly. Some of those magisterial communication techniques include:

Client interaction with RESTful APIs

Client interaction is solely done through RESTful APIs offering a generalized and platform-free approach.

To acquire specific data and execute actions, clients can choose to make HTTP requests at certain endpoints provided by microservices. Such separate interaction allows smooth integration with different client interactions.

Communication between microservices

Complex businesses demand interaction between microservices. Multiple protocols aid in inter-service communication like ‘gRPC’, ‘HTTP’, or even message queues such as ‘RabbitMQ’. Direct communication enables microservices to offer a unified user experience.

Communication with Data Stores

Microservices generally incorporate their personal data stores. Whenever the need of the hour demands reading or writing data, microservices interact with their respective data stores to optimize data consistency.

This method ensures that every service can regulate its data without hindering other services.

Communication with Infrastructure

Infrastructure components such as API gateways, service discoveries, and load balancers assist microservices. Service discoveries allow connecting and locating other microservices dynamically.

Load balancers separate incoming requests across different parts of a service for high scalability and availability.

API gateways are the mediators between clients and microservices, maintaining tasks such as rate limiting, authentication, and caching.

Containerization and Orchestration

A container is responsible for incorporating required executables, binary code, configuration files, and libraries within itself. However, they do not consist of operating system images.

Since these containers can build, examine, deploy, and re-deploy apps in different environments from a local laptop to a cloud or on-premises data center, there are certain benefits you must know:

• Enhanced Portability– Apps running in containers can be easily deployed to different operating systems and hardware platforms. 

• Better Efficiency– Containers allow apps to be more quickly patched, deployed, or even scaled. 

• Reduced Overhead– Due to the exclusion of operating system images, containers need fewer system resources than hardware or traditional virtual machine environments.

• Consistent Operation– Applications functioning in containers all run the same despite the place they are deployed in.

• Application development– Containers endorse agile and DevOps strategies to increase the development, testing, and production cycles. 

Docker and Kubernetes are tools that users dabbling with container environments must’ve heard of. The former is a famous runtime environment tool that can build software inside containers.

Docker images are used to deploy containerized apps or software in multiple environments, from development to test and production. 

At times, many require hundreds or thousands of separate containers in production. Container runtime environments like Docker benefit from instances like these with the help of other tools to orchestrate or organize all the containers in operation.

Kubernetes is one such tool that recognizes different container environments such as Docker.

It orchestrates the operation of multiple functions harmoniously. They also facilitate automation and scale container-based workloads for live production environments. 

Challenges Faced in Microservices Implementation

From the information above, it is fairly evident that implementing microservices in your application is no cakewalk.

So let us observe some of the challenges faced by developers implementing microservices architecture in their application:

📐 Design

Unlike monolithic applications, organizations face incredible difficulty in designing microservices.

Some of the challenges companies may face include:

• Size of the microservice.
• The framework to integrate service.
• Boundaries and connection points between each microservice.

You need to design microservices within specific limits which is why every microservice needs to encapsulate, clarify, and define a certain responsibility.

For every responsibility/function, developers utilize a data-centric view while domain modeling. Such an approach raises its challenge rendering the data rhetorical without any logic behind it. 

🛡️ Security

As microservices are deployed in multi-cloud platforms, there is a higher risk probability and loss of control and monitoring of app components amounting to extra vulnerable points.

To make things worse, inter-service communication between microservices goes through different infrastructure layers making it even more difficult to test these vulnerabilities.

📢 Communication

Individually deployed microservices function as diminutive standalone apps that interact with each other. To attain this, you need to optimize infrastructure layers that allow resource sharing across multiple services. Poor configuration leads to:

• Enhanced latency. 
• Reduced call speed across multiple devices. 

🧪 Testing

When it comes to microservices-based apps, the testing phase for a software development life cycle is incrementally difficult.

The standalone nature of microservices evokes developers to test independent services separately.

This complexity is elevated even more when development teams have to consider integrating services and their inter-reliabilities in testing plans. 

Successful Mobile Apps Using Microservices Architecture

Yes, the theory might be clear, but does it undergird the practical? Absolutely. There have been multiple successful case studies in the world that have implemented microservices architecture in applications. Some of these successful mobile apps are:

🎬 Netflix

This app is the paragon for leveraging the features of microservices architecture for mobile app development.

Netflix has a wide range of microservices that support its streaming platform which constitutes services like video encoding, content suggestions, and user management. 

The mobile app is built atop these microservices which enables the company to provide a seamless user experience.

The app also utilizes containers to separate individual services making sure that issues or bugs do not falter the system.  

🚕 Uber

Another company that incorporates microservices architecture at its core, Uber’s architecture is built atop microservices that can handle things from ride requests to processing payments. 

Its scalability is one of its key features as the company can expeditiously add new features to its platform to meet the increasing demand without refurbishing the whole system from scratch.

🛌 Airbnb

This short-term lodging app has also implemented microservices in its essence for mobile app development.

The microservices in this app handle everything from booking requests to payment processing. 

Its ability to function on different platforms at once is one of its key features.

It is available on both iOS and Android along with a web app and its microservices allow seamless operability of the app on all of the above platforms.

Conclusion

If you made it to the end of this article, we hope we have decoded microservices architecture and its impact on mobile app development successfully.

Now that you understand the significance of such architecture in the world of mobile app development, make sure to implement these services in your project. 

There are multiple benefits and features of microservices architecture and to incorporate them successfully in your app, you need to understand the scope, technology stack, and other items that could make your final product a success.

This is why make sure to do your research on the topic to understand if microservices fit the bill of your app project.

Frequently Asked Question’s (FAQ’s)

1. How do microservices affect mobile app maintenance?

By isolating services, microservices aid in mobile app maintenance. Developers can focus on certain microservices whenever changes or updates are required without disorganizing the entire app. Modularity facilitates identifying and fixing issues, curtailing downtime, and improving overall maintenance efficiency. 

2. What are a few challenges faced in microservices during mobile app development?

Although microservices might offer humongous benefits, they also possess their fair share of bugs and issues in the software. Some of these challenges might occur in communication between services, data consistency, and system management of a complex system. Although, with precise organization and careful planning, these risks and issues can be mitigated. 

3. How do microservices contribute to faster time-to-market for mobile apps?

Due to parallel development, microservices can enhance faster time-to-market in mobile app development. Multiple teams can work on individual microservices incrementally, allowing quicker iteration and feature delivery. The agility is significant in the quick-paced world of mobile app development. 

4. How does the use of microservices affect the mobile app development cost?

The initial setup and planning of microservices architecture might need a bit more planning, the long-term cost benefits are important. Microservices permit effective resource utilization, quicker development cycles, and scalability based on demand, resulting in reduced development and maintenance prices over the app’s lifecycle.