In one of the earlier posts, I talked at length about what NodeJS is, its features, and its benefits.

NodeJS Features & Benefits: How to Develop NodeJS Apps Faster?
Let’s get to know what are the features & benefits of NodeJS along with how your project can be completed quickly...

Moreover, I have also written a detailed guide on what are microservices, their characteristics, and the pros & cons of using them.

What are Microservices? Characteristics, Examples, and Pros & Cons of It
Microservices have been a revolutionary approach for developing web frontends. Let’s get to know what they are, their…

Today, I’ll discuss the advantages and best practices of using microservices with NodeJS.

As we all know, NodeJS is a JavaScript-based runtime environment used for front-end and back-end web development. It’s built on top of Chrome’s V8 JS engine to create dynamic and scalable web applications.

Microservices are one of the in-demand technology used for solving IT challenges to increase development speed, efficiency, and scalability. In addition, it’s one of the architectural design patterns used for cloud app development.

The large structure and modules prevent the app from running smoothly. Therefore, the vast structure needs to be broken down into small, self-contained apps to make it run smoothly. And to make this a possibility, we need to utilize microservices in JS-based apps.

Let’s understand microservices and the advantages of using them:

What are Microservices and their Advantages?

Microservices Architecture is a service-oriented architecture used in software app development. The app here is built from a collection of different interconnected services.

Microservices focuses on creating software products with single-function modules with well-defined operations and interfaces. In addition, the apps are decomposed into individual smaller services, which allow for greater modularity.

Advantages of Using Microservices

There are certainly many advantages of implementing microservices for developing web or mobile applications. Let’s go through them:

Better Arrangement: Microservices help structure the program, making it easier to understand, create, and deploy new features.

Vendor Lock-in Resisted: Multiple microservices can be constructed using different programming languages, ensuring you’re not stuck with a subpar solution indefinitely.

Improved Performance: Since microservices can perform one task at a time, they are simple to adjust and optimize for maximum performance.

Scalability: Achieving scalability with microservices is easier than with monolithic architecture.

Fewer Errors: Since microservices are decomposed into smaller parts, they are easy to maintain for error-free apps.

Now we know the advantages of using Microservices, where does it fit with NodeJS?

Node and microservices have an extremely strong relationship. The framework was created specifically to make the microservice app creation easier. The name itself emphasizes that apps should be made up of several component nodes that can communicate with each other.

Why Use Microservices with NodeJS?

As we discussed above, NodeJS makes a perfect fit for microservices. It’s super-fast, single-threaded, event-driven, asynchronous libraries, highly scalable, and buffers less. Using microservices with NodeJS can have severe benefits as listed below:

Effortless Development

Large-scale apps are complex and pose a challenge to understand, build, conceptualize, and sustain. The amalgamation of microservices with NodeJS would make it simple to update, deploy, and manage the system if the app is broken into smaller, independent components using microservices.

Cost-effective and Fast Time-to-Market

NodeJS is highly suited for microservice architecture, allowing developers to build small components that smoothly integrate into the delivery pipeline. This would expedite the app’s time to market.

Simple Updates and Maintenance

NodeJS has a modular approach to app development, allowing developers to use microservice architecture for quicker, easier, and incremental upgrades.

Also, since the microservices system in nodeJS is loosely coupled, developers won’t find any issues maintaining it.

Build Apps with Business Focus

Another benefit of using microservices with NodeJS is enhanced collaboration and understanding across teams. Also, adding new features in NodeJS apps is easier with microservices.

So, the low learning curve of JavaScript language, Node’s flexibility, API support, scalability, and ease of development in microservices will benefit organizations.

Microservice Architecture Best Practices

Here are some microservice architecture best practices from project commencement to application deployment.

1. Planning and Organizing

The first thing you want to do is assess whether the microservices are the best fit for your needs or not. Next, examine your needs to determine where to use microservices to create useful functions.

Now, form teams that would just treat each microservices as though it were a distinct application.

2. Designing Microservices

Make distinctions between the microservices required and business functions to avoid using too big or too little microservice module. Create loosely linked services to assure microservices are used in a single context.

Use APIs and events instead of calling each other directly. Instead, you can create an API gateway that manages authentication, requests, and answers for services.

3. Creating Microservice Architecture

Ensure each service has its own version control strategy. Also, ensure the development environment is the same on all machines. Finally, include backward compatibility for the service endpoint you are exposing.

4. Storage and Administration Data

Ensure each microservice has its own database and select the database that meets your microservice requirements.

5. Deployment and Hosting

Separately deploying your microservices can save time when communicating with numerous teams during maintenance. In addition, with the help of containerized microservices, individual services can be deployed and managed.

Conclusion

So, these were some of the advantages of using Microservices, along with the benefits of using it for NodeJS and best practices to implement it. Looking at and learning about them feel that microservices and Node are made for each other.