Microapps and microservices are trending, and everyone knows they need them, but the number of definitions creates confusion.
What is the difference between a microapp and a microservice?
A microapp is a stand-alone app that focuses on a targeted set of application functionalities. Microapps are all about the consumer; it’s about speed, agility, and flexibility. A microapp should have its own Software Delivery Life Cycle enabling rapid response to business demands, the feedback mechanism on app usage allowing developers to improve apps, the ultimate goal of agile development.
A Microapp is not the answer to every question; it focuses on a single use-case; for example, the desktop calculator does one thing very well. A micro-app focuses on employee engagement and productivity and conveys the information and tasks relevant to them.
Microservices are organised around fine-grained business capabilities, and the protocols are lightweight. A Microservice architecture strategy comprises applications composed of independent services that interact through standard APIs. They are:
- Highly maintainable and testable;
- Loosely coupled;
- Independently deployable.
How do microapps and microservices relate?
A microapp can be made up of multiple microservices. If we take the example of Identification and Verification (ID&V) of a customer, this process may include name, address, and secret questions (e.g. mother’s maiden name). ID&V is a microapp whose only focus is ensuring you are speaking to the correct customer and consists of 3 microservices Get Name, Get Address, Get Secret Questions.
How can Glue42 make my existing monolith composable using microapps?
Glue42 enables you to make your monolith composable one screen at a time. The interoperability that Glue42 provides allows the new microapp to communicate with the remainder of your legacy application, enabling you to focus on moving business tasks into microapps underpinned by microservices. Hence the evolution to a composable enterprise, not a big bang approach. This minimises risk while allowing you to move to a future-proof microapp/microservice architecture that responds to business needs. Glue42’s interop together with window stickiness means the user experience is either better or as a minimum remains the same.
Glue42 is the only full-service (Interop 2.0) platform that integrates any technology stack and supports data exchange patterns such as request/response, shared data context, streaming, etc. The approach allows you to re-use before re-write. If there is no business case for the rewrite then reuse what you have today but have the benefits of all applications sharing data.
