Go for Microservices?

The criteria from the second lesson of this chapter for the implementation of microservices can serve as a basis to assess Go’s suitability as a microservices programming language.

Communication#

Go supports REST in the standard libraries. Libraries are also available for messaging systems such as AMQP, for example https://github.com/streadway/amqp.

There is also a library for messaging with Redis.

Due to the widespread use of Go, there is hardly any communication infrastructure that does not support Go.

Operation#

Go also offers many options for operation.

Deployment#

• The deployment in a Docker container is very easy with Docker multi stage builds, as already illustrated.

Configuration#

• Libraries like Viper support the configuration of Go applications. This library supports formats such as YAML or JSON.

Logs#

• Go itself already offers support for logs. The Go microservices framework Go Kit contains additional features for logs in more complex scenarios.

Metrics#

• For metrics, Go Kit supports a plethora of tools such as Prometheus, but also Graphite or InfluxDB.

New microservices#

For a new microservice, it is enough to create the Docker build and then write the source code.

Resilience#

Go Kit contains an implementation of resilience patterns such as Circuit Breaker. In addition, there is a port of the Hystrix library for Go.

Microservices have to communicate with other microservices. This requires a UI integration in the web UI or protocols such as REST or messaging.

It is a macro architecture decision which communication protocol is used (see chapter 2).

                                                 Q U I Z  

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In the next lesson, we’ll discuss variations in the implementation of Microservices.

Stay tuned!