If you are involved in the software development world, even indirectly, you’ve probably heard someone mention “microservices.” But just what does that mean?

In the past, applications were developed using monolithic architecture, meaning that all the dependencies, subroutines, libraries, and necessary snippets of code had to be built into the app directly. If any one of those elements goes bad, the entire application can come crashing to a halt.

Software monoliths have other problems, too: A simple update can leave an IT team with hours of work reconnecting data sources, making sure clients are updated, or addressing unforeseen problems that a small bit of new code causes in an unexpected place.

In short, software development has long been plagued by the need to program everything in one place using a style of software architecture that doesn’t meet modern cloud-based computing needs. But what’s the alternative? It’s microservices architecture.

Learn more about microservices in this free PDF download from TechRepublic.

In the download:

• What are microservices?
• How are microservices different from service-oriented architecture?
• What are use cases for microservices?
• Are microservices a mature method for building applications?
• Can existing applications be transformed into microservice-based ones?
• How can businesses and developers get started using microservice architecture?