Serverless Microservices

1. Introduction

Serverless microservices are an architectural style that allows developers to build applications without managing the underlying infrastructure. This model enables automatic scaling and reduces operational costs, making it an appealing choice for many modern applications.

2. Key Concepts

• Serverless Computing: A cloud computing execution model where the cloud provider dynamically manages the allocation of machine resources.
• Microservices: A software architecture style that structures an application as a collection of loosely coupled services.
• Function as a Service (FaaS): A cloud service that allows you to run code in response to events without provisioning servers.

3. Architecture

The architecture of serverless microservices can be visualized as follows:

graph TD;
    A[Client] -->|HTTP Request| B[API Gateway]
    B -->|Triggers| C[Function 1]
    B -->|Triggers| D[Function 2]
    C -->|Reads/Writes| E[Database]
    D -->|Reads/Writes| E
                

In this diagram, clients communicate with an API Gateway that routes requests to various serverless functions.

4. Workflow

The typical workflow for serverless microservices includes the following steps:

1. Client sends an HTTP request to the API Gateway.
2. API Gateway routes the request to the appropriate serverless function.
3. Function executes business logic, potentially interacting with a database or other services.
4. Response is sent back to the client.

5. Best Practices

• Use a single responsibility principle for each microservice.
• Design for idempotency to avoid unintended consequences from repeated requests.
• Monitor and log all serverless function invocations for better debugging.
• Implement security best practices such as authentication and authorization at the API Gateway layer.

6. FAQ