The future of microservices: Software trends in 2024

Highlights

You’ll learn:

The future of microservices: A snapshot

Strategic impact: Microservices is enriching the tech landscape, offering speed, control and a scalable and flexible way to develop software.

Superior to monolithic designs: Microservices outperform monolithic designs in many ways, marking it the future of software development.

5G tech: 5G and microservices will offer mutual benefits of speed and decoupled systems that are easier to manage.

Serverless architecture: Microservices and serverless computing will deepen as businesses turn to resource efficiency.

2024 promises more tech advancements, and most will enhance microservices. Don’t be left behind. Request a free demo now!

Keep reading to learn more!

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Microservices offer a more granular way to manage application development. It is flexible and scalable and gives you full control over your processes. You can integrate microservices with a composable DXP and many other systems, tools, and services.

But what is the future of microservices? That question may come up in your strategy session. So, this article explores the future of microservices, software development trends in 2024, predictions, and how they may impact microservices in the future.

Overview of microservices architecture and its evolution

Microservices breaks down an application into smaller, autonomous services, each responsible for specific business functions. By design, the services interact via APIs. It speeds up the software development process by focusing on smaller, modular units that may be easier to manage.

Before microservices, most enterprises relied on monolithic architectures, and many still do—but they are not flexible and make scaling tedious. Hence, many are switching, choosing a more efficient way. 

What is the future of microservices architecture?

A Garner report states that around 74% of surveyed organizations use microservices. That shows a growing adoption rate and many more will likely switch to it in the coming years.

So, what could be driving that adoption? The efficiency baked into microservices is driving its adoption. Faster development, quicker updates, fault tolerance and isolation all tie into building more resilient systems.

Microservices have become the default choice for many businesses as it promotes autonomous teams and loosely coupled systems. They allow developers to focus on one thing at a time. They can update a service, modify it, or add a new one without impacting the whole system. 

Also, focusing on one or a few services helps manage resources better. So, if you are looking at resource efficiency, the idea of microservices will appeal to you. Hence, its adoption will continue to grow, especially as it is also easy to integrate with cloud services, composable DXPs and many other services and tools.

Importance of staying updated with future trends

Before the emergence of microservices, the monolithic approach seemed to be the best practice at the time, but as customer needs changed, so did technology and the digital strategies of many businesses. 

Staying up to date with future trends ensures you are better prepared for the changes coming. You can plan on how to scale and future-proof your digital strategy. It ensures that you are not taken by surprise when there is a new technology.

Aside from that, staying updated also allows you to prepare for change, especially the cultural shift, which can be quite difficult when switching to a new system.

Predicting future trends in microservices architecture 

Kubernetes

With Kubernetes, there seems to be a promise of continued growth. More businesses are also adopting it as it is flexible and scalable. Kubernetes helps you deploy and scale faster. It ensures that containers run smoothly and helps you manage overheads.

AIOps

Integrating artificial intelligence for IT operations promises to be rapid in the coming years. AIOps automates tasks and troubleshoots microservices, ensuring they perform as they should. The complex nature of microservices is such that AIOps will become an integral part of it going forward.

Service meshes

Service meshes simplify communication. As services grow, it becomes hard to manage how they interact. With service meshes, you can control which services talk to the other, how they do it and the actions they perform. Service level control, load balancing, and observability are what positions service meshes to play a critical part in the microservices ecosystem. 

Serverless architecture

Serverless computing enables you to focus on business logic and not worry about infrastructure. It is cost-effective and efficient. It has a pay-as-you-go model that allows you to manage and make the most of applications with varying workloads.

Event-driven microservices

The event-driven approach offers asynchronous communication, allowing microservices to interact via events, making it more scalable and responsive. RabbitMQ and Apache Kafta are two tools that have been pivotal in implementing event-driven microservices.

Software trends and potential impact on microservices

Some of the major software trends for 2024 are AI and machine learning, 5G, blockchain, no-code and low-code tools, augmented and virtual reality, IoT devices, edge computing, and cloud-native trends like DevOps, Kubernetes and serverless, Etc. 

These trends impact microservices in various ways. For example, with container tools, software engineers can build, test and deploy with ease. AI adoption will improve automation and analytics, helping to keep things efficient and data-driven. 

Here are the technology trends in software development for 2024 and how they may impact the microservices.

AI-powered development

As AI adoption continues to grow, its ability to automate tasks and provide analytics bodes well for microservices in 2024. With predictive analysis and automation, network flow analysis are some of the areas that will benefit microservices the most. 

Increased cloud adoption

Cloud services offer many tools that make it easy to manage microservices. For instance, Docker and AWS Lambda allow you to create, organize and orchestrate microservices, while cloud-based monitoring tools like Grafana can track performance, enabling you to optimize the system.

5G technology 

With speeds of over 40% more than LTE networks, 5G will offer an even faster way to update or deploy microservices. 5G will also benefit from microservices, helping to create a distributed and more resilient 5G ecosystem.

Edge computing

Edge computing is set to grow in 2024 due to its ability to lower latency and manage real-time data processing. So, developers will rely on edge computing to process data faster and closer to data centers. This will make for more responsive applications.

Low-code/No-code

Low or no code will come into play in the future of microservices as the need for speed grows. With low-code or no-code tools, business users will be able to participate in developing applications, reducing reliance on developers.

Tech advancements shaping the future of microservices

Cloud computing

Cloud services like AWS and Azure offer many services that support its architecture. There are managed Kubernetes services like GKE, AKS and EKS and serverless computing options like AWS Lambda. They also offer scalable databases, making it easy for you to deploy. Also, as they are pay-per-use, cloud services help businesses save resources.

Blockchain technology

Blockchain technology offers decentralized data management. As data consistency is one of the problems of microservices, blockchain technology provides a solution, especially ensuring you can build a transparent distributed system.

AI and machine learning operations (MLOps)

With ML Ops tools, you can automate tasks and manage intelligent applications in production environments. Hence, integrating AI and ML in microservices offers an efficient way to update and scale, which is what microservices are about.

Function as a Service (FaaS) and cloud-native computing

FaaS builds on the serverless concept, offering a way to execute code without managing servers, even at the function level. Thus, it allows you to manage and scale individual functions and fits into the cloud-native concept that enables you to build and optimize for the cloud.

Case studies

Bol.com

As app usage increased, Bol started planning to scale, focusing on cross-channel usage. The old system was not flexible and required HTML work to update. By switching to Contentstack’s composable DXP, they were able to move to a headless approach based on microservices and cloud-native technologies.

Mathijssen said. “So we do focus on having experiments running with the content, and we like Contentstack because it enables you to really go to production fast, and really change fast if you’d like to.”

Read more about Bol.com’s success story with a composable DXP.

Dawn Foods

Faced with an inefficient process of ordering by phone and in person, Dawn Foods needed an online option to make it easy for their retail customers to order. They chose the MACH strategy, enabling them to enjoy microservices, API-first, cloud-native and headless technologies.

Combined with Contentstack’s composable DXP, they created an e-commerce platform and increased publishing speed by 80%. They also delivered omnichannel experiences for their customers.

Hear from Gireesh Sahukar, vice president. “Our business users shouldn’t have technical skills to be managing the content. The business user tooling needed to be robust and friendly to such user groups. That is where Contentstack was a better platform than the others that we looked at.”

Read how Dawn Food found the recipe for online success.

FAQ section

What is the microservice architecture?

It is a style that splits applications into smaller, autonomous units, making them easier to manage, scale and deploy.

Do microservices have a future?

Yes, it does. Microservices integrate with any API-driven solution, making them flexible. So, it works well with cloud services, AI tools, serverless computing, and more, and it has great potential to integrate with 5G, blockchain, or other future technologies. 

How is AI influencing the future of microservices?

With AI, you can optimize resource allocation, improve user experience, and uncover valuable insights from data. It also helps in automating microservices deployment.

Why is serverless architecture gaining traction in microservices?

With serverless, developers can focus on business logic and not worry about infrastructure. It is cost-effective and efficient, and it has a pay-as-you-go model, ensuring you only use it when needed and you only pay for what you use.

How are cloud-native trends impacting microservices?

Cloud-native trends like serverless and container tools help make it easy to test, deploy, scale, and manage service instances. They automate scaling and remove the need for infrastructure with serverless, allowing developers to focus on other areas of the business. They also align microservices with DevOps practices, continuous delivery and software development in cloud environments.

What is the role of API management in microservices?

API management handles security and access control, traffic flow, monitoring and analytics. It also enables developers to document their work and access tools like SDKs and API integration tools. 

Learn more

The future of microservices looks exciting as new trends and technologies emerge. The nature of the system to integrate with multiple services makes it suitable for many emerging technologies. By understanding these trends and keeping up with them, you future-proof your digital strategy.

A composable DXP integrates with microservices to prepare you for the future. Take the steps to position yourself for the future of microservices today. Sign up for our free demo today and set up for the future.