Glossary · Automation software engineering and architecture
Microservice architecture
Also known as: Microservices
German: Microservice-Architektur
In software architecture, a microservice architecture structures an application as a set of small, independently deployable services, each owning one business capability and its data and communicating over the network through defined interfaces.
- Software engineering
In one sentence
A microservice architecture builds an application from small, independently deployable services that communicate over defined network interfaces.
Example
An edge platform runs separate services for OPC UA data collection, local storage and anomaly detection, each updated on its own schedule in a container.
How it applies
- Engineering: Services can be developed, scaled and replaced independently, usually packaged as a Container. In exchange, the system becomes distributed: network failures, versioning of the Service interface and data consistency must be designed explicitly.
- Operation: Many small services need automated Software deployment, health checks such as a Readiness probe, and Observability to trace one request across services.
- Documentation: Keep a service catalog: what each service does, who owns it, its interface version and dependencies. User documentation should describe system functions, not the internal service split, which changes more often.
Microservices vs. SOA
Both structure systems as services. Classic Service-oriented architecture (SOA) often relied on shared enterprise middleware and larger services; microservices favor small services, own data stores and lightweight protocols.