Microservices Trends in Java Development [Updated]

Looking to swot up on the latest Java development trends? You need to know about microservices.

Microservices are something the world of software development is steadily shifting towards. This type of architecture allows immense flexibility and ease of development. It also takes much less effort to fix a piece of code in a single component rather than fixing the same piece of code in a monolith.

And since microservices are a form of service-oriented architecture, it’s no surprise that Java and microservices go hand in hand - the design of SOA is an essential skill that every Java developer should know and utilise. Let’s dig a little deeper - and remember, no matter what industry you’re working in, if you need help selecting the right company, tell us what you need. We can do the work for you and connect you with up to 5 companies within 72h that match your need- all for free.

Microservices: A Quick Overview

In traditional software development, applications are usually built by a monolith architecture. That means all components or modules of an app are in a single unit and in order to change one minor thing, you will need to dig into the whole system.

Though monolithic architecture has its benefits, it doesn’t let developers quickly and easily make necessary changes. This is where microservices step in, becoming an efficient alternative to monoliths.

Microservices are a system that consists of independent and deployable services. So instead of placing all app components into one system, developers design separate components that can efficiently function and communicate with each other through certain messaging patterns.

The key advantages of microservice architecture are:

• Easier to build apps
• Single modules can be scaled up or down more easily
• The ability to focus on the seamless functionality of a product
• Faster development
• Vast choice of programming languages and tools (since all modules are independent)

It’s important to know how microservices can be best deployed in order to get the most value from them. These services will be more valuable with an effective management of your team, read our article about how to work with remote Java developers for more information.

Containers

Application containers are perfectly suitable for running a microservice-based application. First, they enable the isolation of execution at an OS level. That means when an operating system interface manages several containers, each of these containers has its own execution environment. This significantly reduces overhead and requires less processing power.

Second, due to their lightweight nature, containers are rather small and more efficient to initialise. This has a significant impact on the application’s performance.

So if we compare, for example, VMs to containers, containers overall tend to be more efficient, fast and responsive, making them the perfect option for microservices. Though this is not the ultimate option and some applications successfully run without the containers, it is recommended to try using them and comparing the app’s performance after this implementation.

Use of Service Meshes

A service mesh is a dedicated infrastructure layer that ensures fast and reliable communication between the services in the microservice architecture. Some of the benefits that service meshes provide include:

• Authentication
• Circuit breaking
• Fault injection
• Service discovery
• Traffic management

While some developers use third-party libraries to enable service communication, this has certain flaws. For example, when a third-party component calls for an upgrade, you’ll need to upgrade the whole application (and then use regression tests to verify and deploy it). This consumes a lot of time and resources. A service mesh takes away the complexity from an application and puts it in a service proxy so it can manage the app. Service proxies, in turn, have an array of useful features (i.e. routing, telemetry, circuit breaking) which is beneficial for the app’s functionality.

We can see, then, that the use of service meshes facilitates and speeds up the development without hurting the app’s performance.

Use of GraphQL

GraphQL is a syntax that specifies how to ask for data and helps to load the data from a server to a client. When using GraphQL for microservices, it allows data-owner separation and more powerful query planning.

GraphQL grants more control over the data loading and achieves much better granularity as REST, for example. As well, GraphQL is able to prioritise the requests due to the request budgeting option. That means each request receives a certain value and thus, the server “budget” can be calculated, with further request prioritisation.

Finally, GraphQL enables server caching due to the deployment of object identifiers. GraphQL creates a cache of the data that is frequently requested saving the processor time and resources.

How to Make Microservices Work For You

Now that you’re familiar with some of the biggest microservice trends when it comes to Java development, let’s take a look at how to incorporate them into your working processes.

When looking for the right microservice team to incorporate into your process, remember - if you need help selecting the right company, tell us what you need. We can do the work for you and connect you with up to 5 companies within 72h that match your need- all for free.

We also offer an article about the best practices to hire Java developers, if you need more information

Asynchronous Communication Between the Services

While synchronous communication is the most common for microservices, it does not answer several important questions. Should the client care if the upstream dependency is unavailable? What about the request prioritisation? What do I do if there is a guaranteed response time which negatively affects usability?

Asynchronous communication manages to resolve these issues. The core thing to remember about it is that this type of communication eliminates the need to wait for a response and hence decouples the execution of several services at once. What’s more, this communication method deals with traffic in a more efficient manner than synchronous communication.

Work out what engagement model works best for you, and communication with your team will be much easier. For more information about communicating with your team, you may want to read our article about the do’s and don'ts of managing an outsourced Java development team.

Microservices Frameworks for Java

In addition to the above-mentioned tools, any Java development team who works with microservices has to know the following frameworks that are best suited for designing microservices in Java:

• Spring Boot
• Restx
• Jersey
• Swagger
• Restlet

Even if you have a knowledge of all of these frameworks, however, don’t blindly rush into the microservices implementation. This architecture demands a high level of skill and knowledge so if you want to transit from monolith to microservices architecture, make sure your developers are knowledgeable enough.