Modernizing your enterprise with microservices
The heyday of monolithic software architecture has ended. Many enterprises are saying farewell to clunky traditional applications with a single code base. In their place, organizations have increasingly embraced microservices. These small, self-contained services allow businesses to quickly scale their operations and easily deploy new features.
Large organizations may use hundreds or even thousands of microservices to manage different functions. Microservice reporting allows businesses to compile data from these diverse services and monitor their performance. This approach improves efficiency and reliability, allowing users to detect technical issues early and contain failures within a single service.
How are enterprises modernizing their architecture?
Microservices have exploded in popularity as enterprises revamp their IT infrastructure. An estimated 85% of large companies currently use this model, and another 14% plan to use it in the future.
There are many reasons why enterprises have shifted to microservices. One of the biggest advantages is the ability to deploy and run these applications separately providing better resilience, scalability, and cost-efficiency.
For instance, Spotify uses separate microservices to handle different functions like retrieving songs, verifying user credentials, and processing payments. This architecture allows the company to implement new features and update existing ones quickly without disrupting the entire platform.
Microservices also scale independently to adapt to changing demands. Let’s say a marketing firm launches a major email advertising campaign. They could scale their email delivery service to manage the unusually high number of outbound messages while maintaining the regular capacity of their other microservices, such as A/B testing and analytics. This approach enables businesses to optimize resource allocation and improve efficiency.
Additionally, microservices use powerful Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to talk to other applications. This structure eases communication and allows different microservices to work together seamlessly, granting users more opportunities to configure data to meet specific business requirements.
APIs also improve consistency by allowing businesses to change the underlying applications without altering the entire system. For instance, a software developer could replace an outdated notification service with a more advanced microservice to personalize content and boost audience engagement. The new application’s API will integrate with the rest of the services without extensive modifications to the existing architecture, saving time and minimizing disruptions.
What are reporting microservices?
Reporting microservices work together to aggregate and analyze data from two or more sources. They're designed to handle large volumes of data and transform it into actionable reports.
On a basic level, reporting microservices are like individual LEGO® pieces. Each microservice has a different function, just like LEGO blocks have different colors and shapes. Developers can combine different microservices to create custom applications, much like putting together Lego pieces to build unique models.
Enterprises often have intricate networks of independent but linked microservices. For instance, an e-commerce business may have separate applications for:
Inventory management
Pricing
Order processing
Transaction processing
Personalized product recommendations
Loyalty programs
Reporting microservices enable businesses to extract and analyze information from each application. Additional microservices would then handle reporting and data visualization.
Businesses can use reporting microservices to create and deliver reports, monitor key performance indicators (KPIs), and quickly detect trends across their infrastructure.
How do reporting microservices fit into your environment?
As businesses move away from monolithic applications, they need more flexible solutions to manage and interpret data. Reporting microservices help organizations use data to see the big picture of their operations. Additionally, developers can assemble these independent components like LEGO bricks into a cohesive and detailed structure that accomplishes a more complex task.
This approach helps users understand how different components interact and track their performance. For instance, they might notice that a report-generating microservice is experiencing bottlenecks and slowing down the rest of the system.
Organizations can also use reporting microservices while transitioning from traditional virtual machines (VMs) to a Kubernetes or cloud-based environment. This process involves building data pipelines to gather information from multiple microservices and integrating it into a cohesive reporting system.
There are many benefits of including reporting microservices in enterprise architecture, including:
Containerization: Microservices divide architecture into smaller, more manageable applications.
Scalability: Organizations can balance the size and load of reporting microservices and other applications more effectively.
Troubleshooting: To stick with the LEGO metaphor, it’s easier to identify and fix issues affecting smaller blocks than a large, interconnected structure.
How do microservices fit your needs today?
Businesses of all sizes can benefit from reporting microservices.
Most corporations are modernizing their infrastructure by moving to the cloud or adopting Kubernetes. This transition allows companies to:
Centralize services for use by multiple departments
Improve scalability
Minimize downtime caused by broken or inefficient systems
Reduce computing costs
Many startups have also embraced microservices to save money and reduce time to market, giving startups a competitive advantage. They also give startups the flexibility to change and scale their tech stacks as they expand.
Reporting microservices support these trends by providing comprehensive insights about a system’s performance. Enterprises and startups can use these tools to make better, data-driven strategic decisions.
Key aspects of reporting microservices
Effective reporting microservices have four key components:
API: Reporting applications use lightweight APIs to communicate with other microservices and gather relevant data.
Small footprint: Like all microservices, reporting applications are designed to run independently and ease continuous delivery and deployment. They also use less CPU and memory, reducing costs and loading time.
Modularization: These tools take a multi-service approach by using different microservices to handle various reporting functions, such as collecting data and generating reports.
Cloud native: Reporting microservices operate in cloud platforms and offer flexible integration with other cloud-based applications. This cloud-based approach allows microservices to scale quickly to accommodate large amounts of data without affecting performance.
How do you go about choosing a reporting microservices?
The best reporting microservices provide accurate, efficient, and comprehensive solutions. They also integrate smoothly with the business’s existing infrastructure.
Users should seek vendors with extensive experience in the microservices market. Seasoned developers understand the complexities of integrating diverse applications and aggregating data from different sources. They use the latest industry best practices and cutting-edge tools to design responsive and scalable reporting microservices. For example, they may use container-based architecture to improve performance and flexibility.
Support is another factor to consider when comparing reporting microservices. Top vendors release regular updates to improve performance and fix security vulnerabilities. Providers like Jaspersoft also have user communities with active forums, documentation, user guides, and other resources. This ongoing support helps users overcome challenges and get the most out of their reporting tools.
Finally, businesses should choose widely used reporting microservices. These applications have loyal customer bases because they have robust features and consistently deliver excellent results. Users can browse customer reviews to determine if a microservice will meet their expectations and needs.
See the big picture with microservice reporting
The growing complexity of a microservices architecture can make understanding how all the components work together and making improvements seem daunting. However, reporting microservices make it simple by providing the insights organizations need to track performance, improve efficiency, and diagnose issues.
JaspersoftReports IO allows users to generate reports and data visualizations effortlessly. This API-driven service integrates in cloud- and microservices-based architectures for in-depth analysis. Start your 30-day free trial and start analyzing data today.
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