ServiceBased

Servicebased is a software design approach in which an application is constructed from a set of independently deployable services that communicate over a network. Each service implements a specific business capability and exposes a well-defined interface, enabling modular development, deployment, and scaling. The term is often used interchangeably with service-based architecture, service-oriented architecture (SOA), and microservices, though it spans several related patterns.

Characteristics include loose coupling, contract-first interfaces, and interoperability across technologies. Services are typically stateless, or manage state through external data stores, and they communicate via lightweight protocols such as HTTP/REST, gRPC, or messaging. A service registry, API gateway, and sometimes a service mesh support discovery, security, observability, and routing.

Origins trace to service-oriented architecture concepts developed in the 2000s, with modern practice emphasizing cloud-native deployment, containerization, and automation. Microservices are a common, but not universal, implementation of service-based approaches, focusing on small, independently scalable units.

Benefits include improved scalability, resilience, and the ability to evolve technology stacks; teams can own services end-to-end. Drawbacks include increased complexity in testing, deployment, data management, and governance, as well as potential latencies and requiring strong security and versioning strategies.

Common patterns include orchestration and choreography, API gateways, event-driven messaging, and devops automation. Typical artifacts are contracts, service registries, and interface definitions, with tools spanning REST, SOAP, Apache Kafka, and service meshes such as Istio.