DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Please enter at least three characters to search
Refcards Trend Reports
Events Video Library
Refcards
Trend Reports

Events

View Events Video Library

Zones

Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks

Because the DevOps movement has redefined engineering responsibilities, SREs now have to become stewards of observability strategy.

Apache Cassandra combines the benefits of major NoSQL databases to support data management needs not covered by traditional RDBMS vendors.

The software you build is only as secure as the code that powers it. Learn how malicious code creeps into your software supply chain.

Generative AI has transformed nearly every industry. How can you leverage GenAI to improve your productivity and efficiency?

Related

  • Designing Scalable and Secure Cloud-Native Architectures: Technical Strategies and Best Practices
  • Mitigate the Security Challenges of Telecom 5G IoT Microservice Pods Architecture Using Istio
  • Microservices Security in a Nutshell
  • Design Patterns for Microservices: Ambassador, Anti-Corruption Layer, and Backends for Frontends

Trending

  • Navigating Double and Triple Extortion Tactics
  • Designing for Sustainability: The Rise of Green Software
  • Optimizing Software Performance for High-Impact Asset Management Systems
  • Designing AI Multi-Agent Systems in Java
  1. DZone
  2. Software Design and Architecture
  3. Microservices
  4. Increase Security by Transitioning From Monolith to Microservices Architecture

Increase Security by Transitioning From Monolith to Microservices Architecture

With microservices architecture, you’ll not only make it easier for your engineers to make regular updates but you will also have multiple preventive stopgaps that will ensure your system is secure.

By 
Bob Brodie user avatar
Bob Brodie
·
Jul. 08, 16 · Opinion
Likes (4)
Comment
Save
Tweet
Share
8.2K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

One of the greatest concerns within any software structure these days is security, and it comes in many forms. Not only are vulnerabilities a concern but security flaws in the architecture of your software structure can be problematic as well. A secure application is one with fail-safes and monitoring that handles disruptions happening across the application infrastructure. When planning your software architecture, there are several advantages microservices have over monolith services from a security perspective.

In a monolithic architecture, all the code is part of a single product. If one security problem develops, the entire system can be open to attack and can be affected as a result. This makes it very difficult to isolate potential security threats as your entire system may now be compromised and malicious software could spread throughout. Locking down parts of the system where a breach occurred can be quite difficult with this architecture since you do not want to turn off the entire system to fix one problem.

Monolithic architectures have been functional for decades, but as security threats have grown and are now affecting both large and small businesses, these types of architectural strategies are showing signs of weakness from their inherent designs that hackers have been able to exploit. As an application's codebase grows, so does the risk of adverse effects, which puts your entire system at a constant risk. Because of this drawback, many companies, both large and small, are migrating from monolithic architectures to microservice architectures.

In a microservices architecture, a software product is broken up into small individual services, each with a specific purpose, making the overall system more secure and easier to develop. Each of the services is created separately and can be run on different servers, therefore minimizing the risk of having the entire system brought down with a single attack or major issue like a memory leak. Also, by separating parts of a system across different servers, you are decreasing the risk of having one single server crash take down the entire system while allowing each service to scale based on the necessary resources.

Separation creates fail-safes that pre-emptively stop security issues within specific services before they spread to other areas of the system. Managing these separate services may seem to be more complicated but there are many tools available, such as XebiaLabs, Bamboo, and Jenkins, that make it easy to manage multiple complex pipelines and deployments as you scale up a microservice architecture.

From an engineering perspective, utilizing a microservices architecture makes it easier for different parts of the system to be developed concurrently. By splitting an application up into separate services, different engineers can oversee the development of each, making it much simpler to manage and regularly update. Then, when new parts of the system need to be developed, having a shorter feedback loop between users and developers makes the process much faster and efficient. As companies grow, their systems need to do the same—having an architecture that is made up of individual parts makes the scale up that much easier.

If you have a large, monolithic application and have experienced security issues related to this type of structure, try separating out one single part (such as order management or a customer service tool) to test out a microservices architecture. If one section works well, make a plan to separate out additional parts of your system and build them out piece by piece. This is often the basis for a company converting from a monolithic application to microservices, because it is much easier to split apart a broken product than to build a perfect one.

A slow-but-steady approach is the perfect way to transition to a microservice architecture without having the need to shut down your entire system and a complete overhaul. With this new architecture, you’ll not only make it easier for your engineers to make regular updates but you will also have multiple preventive stopgaps that will ensure your system is secure.

Architecture microservice security

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Related

  • Designing Scalable and Secure Cloud-Native Architectures: Technical Strategies and Best Practices
  • Mitigate the Security Challenges of Telecom 5G IoT Microservice Pods Architecture Using Istio
  • Microservices Security in a Nutshell
  • Design Patterns for Microservices: Ambassador, Anti-Corruption Layer, and Backends for Frontends

Partner Resources

×

Comments
Oops! Something Went Wrong

The likes didn't load as expected. Please refresh the page and try again.

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Support and feedback
  • Community research
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Core Program
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 3343 Perimeter Hill Drive
  • Suite 100
  • Nashville, TN 37211
  • support@dzone.com

Let's be friends:

Likes
There are no likes...yet! 👀
Be the first to like this post!
It looks like you're not logged in.
Sign in to see who liked this post!