Size Matters: Microservices Research and Applications

Abstract

In this chapter we offer an overview of microservices providing the introductory information that a reader should know before continuing reading this book. We introduce the idea of microservices and we discuss some of the current research challenges and real-life software applications where the microservice paradigm play a key role. We have identified a set of areas where both researcher and developer can propose new ideas and technical solutions. The Shift Towards DistributionHistory of programming languages, paradigms and software architectures have been characterized in the last few decades by a progressive shift towards distribution, modularization and loose coupling. The purpose is to increase code reuse and robustness [17,29], ultimately a necessity dictated by the need of increasing software quality, not only in safety and financial-critical applications [39], but also in more common off-the-shelf software packages. The two directions of modularization 1 (code reuse and solid design) and robustness (software quality and formal methods: verification/correctness-by-construction) advanced to some extent independently and pushed by different communities, although with a non-empty overlap.

An Open Source Solution for Smart Contract-Based Parking Management

“…In order to tackle those, we propose a smart contract-based solution, that brings in trust by encapsulating sensitive relations and processes into transparent and distributed smart contracts. From the architecture point of view services and, in particular, microservices [7,9,22] and their composition, orchestration [20,23], reconfiguration [21] and recovery [10] have not been discussed. All these are open issues that need to be investigated in future.…”

Quantitative Analysis of Cloud Function Evolution in the AWS Serverless Application Repository

“…• Understanding microservices in practice. Cloud functions are one of the few microservice technologies which inherently offer a service interface, rather than being a mix of services and application support components, securing their position among ongoing microservice research [19,20]. The metrics from AWS SAR give insights into practical design and implementation decisions by developers and could further be exploited to understand trends in microservice development including programming models and code structures.…”

An Open Source Solution for Smart Contract-based Parking

“…In order to tackle those, we propose a smart contract-based solution, that brings in trust by encapsulating sensitive relations and processes into transparent and distributed smart contracts. From the architecture point of view services and, in particular, microservices [9,22,7] and their composition, orchestration [20,23], reconfiguration [21] and recovery [10] have not been discussed. All these are open issues that need to be investigated in future.…”