What are the key principles of microservices architecture?

The key principles of microservices architecture are as follows:

1. Single Responsibility: Each microservice should have a single responsibility or function, focusing on doing one thing well.

2. Decentralized Governance: Microservices should be developed and deployed independently, allowing teams to make decisions autonomously without relying on a central authority.

3. Service Independence: Each microservice should be independent and self-contained, with its own database and resources, enabling them to be developed, deployed, and scaled independently.

4. Communication via APIs: Microservices communicate with each other through well-defined APIs, using lightweight protocols such as HTTP/REST or messaging systems like RabbitMQ or Kafka.

5. Fault Isolation: Microservices are designed to be fault-tolerant, ensuring that failures in one microservice do not affect the overall system. This is achieved through techniques like circuit breakers and fallback mechanisms.

6. Scalability: Microservices allow for horizontal scalability, where individual services can be scaled independently based on their specific needs, improving overall system performance.

7. Continuous Delivery: Microservices architecture promotes continuous delivery and deployment, enabling frequent updates and releases without impacting the entire system.

8. Infrastructure Automation: Automation plays a crucial role in microservices architecture, allowing for efficient deployment, monitoring, and management of services using tools like Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines.

9. Polyglot Persistence: Microservices can use different databases or data storage technologies based on their specific requirements, allowing for flexibility and choosing the most suitable solution for each service.

10. Organizational Alignment: Microservices architecture aligns with the organizational structure, enabling small, cross-functional teams to take ownership of individual microservices and iterate quickly.

These principles collectively aim to achieve modularity, scalability, and agility in building and maintaining complex software systems.