On microservices, bounded contexts, and everything in between

Often microservices and bounded contexts are considered the same thing. They aren't. Vladik Khononov points out the difference between the two, provides heuristics for when each pattern should be used, and shares his experience optimizing microservices-based architectures at NaXex.

“Ninety-five percent of the words are spent extolling the benefits of ‘modularity’ and that little, if anything, is said about how to achieve it.”—Glenford J. Myers The above quote is 40 years old. Today, nothing has changed except terminology. Time to fix this. Vladik Khononov breaks down how to decompose a system into loosely coupled components, how to draw boundaries between services, how to decide whether some logic belongs to one service or another, and how domain-driven design (DDD) can help you make those decisions. And he takes a stab at answering the age-old question of what part of a microservice should be “micro” and how it can be measured. You won’t hear about Docker or Kubernetes. Actually, nothing related to infrastructure. Instead, you’ll dive into the difference between microservices and bounded contexts, discover when each pattern should be used, and get takeaways from Vladik’s experience optimizing microservices-based architectures at NaXex.