Microservices

Microservices are the counterpoint to monolithic applications. Instead of one large system in which every function is intertwined, microservice architectures consist of many small services. Each service has a clearly bounded function (search index, cart, product data, authentication) and communicates with other services through APIs or events.

The benefits are concrete. Individual services can be scaled independently. A Black Friday means high load on the checkout service, but not necessarily on the product data service. Services can evolve independently, an update to the search service does not require redeployment of the full system. Technology choices per service become possible.

The complexity is operational. Dozens or hundreds of services have to be orchestrated, monitored, and maintained. Service discovery, network latency, distributed transactions, and failure isolation are challenges that do not exist in monoliths. Pimcore combines the modularity of a microservice architecture with the operational simplicity of an integrated platform.