WSO2’s Approach for an API-driven MSA

I recently wrote a white paper titled, API-driven Microservice Architecture — A WSO2 Reference Architecture. As you might imagine, it covers the key features of a Microservice Architecture (MSA) and why MSA is an excellent approach to building decentralized systems. It also explains that microservices can be too granular when it comes to architecting larger systems and projects in the brownfield. Most enterprises follow a layered architecture with both Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) principles and MSA concepts by grouping the services or microservices into layers in the overall enterprise architecture. This approach makes each architecture layer a logically centralized set of shared components.

The paper predominantly discusses the layered approach for an API-driven MSA and it will introduce ways of gradually transitioning from a monolithic architecture to a layered MSA via the API gateway pattern using WSO2 middleware and recommended technologies. It also delves into other reference architectures such as segmented architecture, which is a sub pattern of layered architecture, and the alternative reference architecture known as cell-based architecture. The paper will only cover the request-response communication style for client-microservice communication.

The white paper is now available in the WSO2’s reference architecture repository. You can access the paper here. I hope you find it informative and useful.

Any feedback, changes, or contributions are most welcome. Do send a pull request or create a Github issue for changes. If you have any feedback or questions about the content of the white paper, please feel free to email them to me at dakshitha@wso2.com.

Here’s the corresponding tech talk presented by me at The WSO2 Integration Summit Singapore 2019.