05 — Glossary · Application & Data
Microservice
GL-250 · also Microservices, Microservice Architecture
A small service that owns one business function and its own data, runs in its own process and can be built, deployed and scaled independently of the other services in the system.
Independent deployment is the point. Services that must be released together, or that share a database, give the cost of distribution without its benefits.
See also
In the catalog
Read next
Microservices (James Lewis and Martin Fowler) ↗
The definition above is written in our own words; the source is linked, not copied.