Skip to main content

C1 - Integration With External Systems

These techniques target integration with external systems outside of the microservice-based system.

Examples are third-party systems or their APIs used by the application, or clients that use the API of the microservice-based system.

Level of control over integration counterpart​

The control over the integration counterpart is low since external systems are not under the control of the project teams. Changes in external systems come with a significant communication overhead - if possible at all. "[Many third-party systems] are quite closed off. At best, I may be able to gain access to some sort of data schema. If I am fortunate, there may be a rudimentary input-output table or some mechanism through which I can manipulate the data. However, what is the level of availability of these mechanisms? Most are not available 24/7 or any sort of guarantee" - [Interview D, translated from German]. Special measures might be required to ensure successful integration between the microservice-based system and the external systems since they do not necessarily keep up with the level of fault tolerance, scaling, and knowledge about the internal structure of the components within the system.

Refined Categories​