Microservices Architecture Overview

Microservices architecture breaks large applications into small, independent services. Each service focuses on one business capability and communicates with others via APIs.

1. Key characteristics

• Independent deployability
• Loose coupling
• Decentralized data management

2. Common components

API Gateway
Config Server
Service Registry
Load Balancer
Monitoring Stack (Prometheus + Grafana)

3. Example architecture

Users Service
Orders Service
Inventory Service
Notification Service

Each one runs on its own port and communicates with others via REST or messaging queues.

Final thoughts

Microservices are powerful but introduce complexity. Start with a simple monolith, then break it into services only when needed.