Microservice architecture (MSA) is an architectural style for distributed software systems, which promotes the use of fine-grained services with their own lifecycles. Several benefits of MSA have been reported in the literature, including increased modularity, flexible configuration, easier development, easier maintenance, and increased productivity. On the other hand, the adoption of MSA for a specific software system is not trivial and a number of challenges have been reported in the literature. These challenges should be evaluated carefully concerning project requirements before successful MSA adoption. Unfortunately, there has been no attempt to systematically review and categorize these challenges and the potential solution directions. This article aims at identifying the state of the art of MSA and describing the challenges in applying MSA together with the identified solution directions. A systematic literature review (SLR) is performed using the published literature since the introduction of MSA in 2014. Overall, 3842 papers were discovered using a well-planned review protocol, and 85 of them were selected as primary studies and analyzed regarding research questions. Nine basic categories of challenges were identified and detailed into 40 sub-categories, for which potential solution directions were explored. MSA seems feasible, but the identified challenges could impede the expected benefits when not taken into account. This study identifies and synthesizes the reported challenges and solution directions, but further research on these directions is needed to leverage the successful MSA adoption.

With the need for increased modularity and flexible configuration of software modules, microservice architecture (MSA) has gained interest and momentum in the last 7 years. As a result, MSA has been widely addressed in the literature and discussed from various perspectives. In addition, several vendors have provided their specific solutions in the state of the practice, each with its challenges and benefits. Yet, selecting and implementing a particular approach is not trivial and requires a broader overview and guidance for selecting the proper solution for the given situation. Unfortunately, no study has been provided that reflects on and synthesizes the key features and challenges of the current MSA solutions in the state of the practice. To this end, this article presents a feature-driven characterization of micro-service architectures that identifies and synthesizes the key features of current MSA solutions as provided by the key vendors. A domain-driven approach is adopted in which a feature model is presented defining the common and variant features of the MSA solutions. Further, a comparative analysis of the solution approaches is provided based on the proposed feature model.

Microservice architecture (MSA) is an architectural style that is designed to support the modular development of software systems within a particular domain. It is characterized by the use of small, independently deployable services, which can be developed and deployed autonomously. The benefits of MSA include improved scalability, fault‐tolerance, and ease of deployment and maintenance. However, developing MSA for a specific domain can be challenging and requires a thorough consideration of various concerns such as service boundaries, communication protocols, and security. To support the easy development and guidance of an MSA for practitioners, we present a reference architecture design for MSA. The reference architecture has been designed after a comprehensive domain analysis of MSA in the literature and the MSAs of key vendors. This analysis has been used to identify best practices and common patterns that can be applied to the development of MSA. Additionally, relevant architecture viewpoints have been selected to model the corresponding architecture views, providing a clear and comprehensive understanding of the architecture. To validate the proposed reference architecture, a multi‐case study research approach has been used. In this approach, two industrial case studies have been used to demonstrate the practical applicability of the proposed reference architecture. The results of these case studies have shown that the reference architecture can be used to effectively guide the development of MSA in real‐world scenarios.