A monolithic architecture for SaaS product development will inevitably be a problem for Independent Software Vendors (ISV) that have built a successful company on a self-developed solution. For them, moving to microservices can serve as the next logical step.

SaaS businesses demand robust agility, cost optimization, and finding a perfect balance between Capital Expenses (CapEx) and Operating Expenses (OPEX).

The answer to such demands lies in moving away from the conventional monolithic architecture to microservices application that improves testing methodologies through a change in DevOps architecture.

In a cloud-SaaS architecture, complex applications consisting of a collection of services and data are decoupled from the programme itself. A microservices architecture organizes an application as a collection of linked services.

Each service may be created using a distinct programming language, and each service may be tested separately. They are independently deployable and organized according to the business demands.

For instance, consider a microservices-based e-commerce platform where a business capability pivots resources to each microservice —shopping cart, product search, customer review, etc.

As a result, these services may exist independently of one other and be controlled by various teams in a predefined manner.

What are Microservices?

Microservices is defined as a business’s approach to redefining its software development. Here, small independent services connect with one other through well-defined APIs.

Each of these services is owned and operated by a small, autonomous staff. The end goal of microservices architectures is to make applications easy to scale and ensure faster development.

It drives innovation while accelerating time-to-market for new features to roll out with the product.

Implementing microservices includes development and deployment of high-end cloud-ready software applications. They must be simpler to grow, modify, and deploy the programme by breaking them down into smaller components.

Scalable

IVS demands cloud-based architecture that is scalable and easy to combine with other comparable systems since they are hosted in the cloud. Ultimately, SaaS scalability should ensure vertical and horizontal scaling, which are examples of scaling up and down.

Scalability options for SaaS include incorporating multi-level scalability architecture, tenant-awareness, automatic data movement, workload support, software architecture and database access.

Microservices provide scalability that helps save time and money, allowing users to update to any new feature once they are available.

Secured

Businesses can leverage IVS offerings to host and back up the data that is often more secure than saving it on local disks/PCs. In a security emergency, the SaaS provider’s servers and database are protected, allowing most of the company’s data to stay safe.

Therefore, there is a need for SaaS architecture to ensure security safeguards are in place for SaaS application development. Also, it should protect users against OWASP/SAN-identified vulnerabilities while enabling controls for SaaS application identity and access management.

Reliable

SaaS providers need to consider the architecture’s health that ensures secured networks and top-notch performances when end-users leverage tools and services. Such criteria are necessary to evaluate and monitor businesses’ SAAS applications.

Here, a reliable SaaS architecture is one that has all the critical components mentioned to guarantee SAAS dependability.

Why choose microservices for SaaS?

Microservices-based SaaS product development would mean executing as a separate service of your software using lightweight APIs that interact with one other.

Microservices are useful for ISVs providing SaaS that does not have a predetermined list of devices they want to serve. If you’re developing an app for various platforms, microservices will remain device and platform agnostic, allowing you to provide a consistent user experience.

How microservices can help provide such architecture for SaaS as compared to monolithic SaaS architecture

Monolithic architecture can deploy all of the services and elements at once since it is a single huge application. Its components are interrelated and interdependent, making it known as a tightly-coupled architecture.

Code may be written for each component and its connected component when using monolithic architecture.

Typically, a single jar/war file contains all of the code for your application’s multiple levels, including display, service, and execution units. Essentially, this is a single codebase that includes all of the features needed for the application.

First, let’s compare microservices vs monolithic architecture. A monolithic application is built as a single unit.

Enterprise applications are often based on monolith architecture and built-in three parts:

• Database: A database is a collection of tables stored in a database management system that uses a relational model.
• Client-side UI: HTML pages and/or JavaScript running in a browser.
• Server-side application: An application that will process HTTP requests, perform domain-specific logic, obtain and update data from the database, and generate HTML views to be delivered to a browser.

The reason why it is called a monolith architecture is that it carries a single logical executable. Therefore, developers need to build and deploy an updated version of the server-side application before making any changes to the system.

How software development processes differ between microservices and monolithic architecture

Often, you will have large teams working on a single, monolithic architecture deployment in traditional software development processes by following waterfall or agile methods.

As compared to microservices architecture, monolithic architecture has several issues:

• A monolithic program can be considered a big ball of mud, meaning that no single developer or even a group of developers would know all of the application’s features.
• Monolithic applications can only benefit from a limited amount of reuse.
• It is relatively challenging to scale monolithic architecture based on SaaS.
• Monolithic application artifacts are difficult to deploy with operational agility repeatedly.
• You will end up with a lack of “the correct tool for the job” if monolithic systems are built using a single development stack like JEE or .NET.

It is possible to create software in a new way using a microservice architecture with cloud deployment tools, API management, and integration technologies.

You benefit from microservices that are broken up into a set of separate services that are built, deployed, and kept up separately.

The advantages of microservices are as follows

• Compared to monolithic architecture, microservcies require fewer developers for equivalent development requirements.
• Microservices architecture offers deployment independence for components, allowing for greater agility and reducing communication time across various groups and services.
• Each service is a separate deployment artifact that can be scaled separately for the other services.
• When services are built separately, developers may utilize the right framework as needed.
• Self-contained microservices may be independently deployed, requiring less time to set up and deploy.
• Getting started with the project is relatively easy for a new developer as they just need to know about a single microservice and not the whole system.
• It is only necessary to scale out a single microservice if it is experiencing a high traffic volume because too many users are making use of its features. As a result, horizontal scalability is possible with the microservices design.