Microservices Architecture: Decomposing Monoliths Into Scalable, Independent Services

Microservices architecture structures applications as a collection of loosely coupled, independently deployable services. Each service owns its business domain, manages its own database, and communicates with other services via REST APIs, gRPC, or event-driven messaging (Kafka, RabbitMQ). Teams deploy services independently without coordinating with other teams.

Microservices are appropriate when: you have multiple development teams needing independent deployment, different services have different scaling requirements, you need technology diversity (different languages/frameworks per service), or your monolith has become unmaintainable. Microservices are NOT appropriate for small teams, simple applications, or when the operational complexity outweighs the development agility benefit.