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Leveraging Azure Data API Builder in Microservices Migration: A Comprehensive Guide to Modernising Data Access Patterns
Migrating a monolithic application to a microservices architecture can offer immense benefits in terms of scalability, flexibility, and resilience. However, moving to microservices requires revisiting traditional data access patterns — such as Repository and Command Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS) — to better suit a decoupled environment. Microsoft’s Azure Data API Builder (DAB) provides a configuration-driven approach to data access by automatically generating REST and GraphQL endpoints for databases, making it an ideal tool for streamlining microservices architectures.
This article will explore how DAB can facilitate a microservices migration by replacing or enhancing key data patterns, discuss its integration with Azure Container Registry as an alternative to Kubernetes, and outline best practices within the Azure ecosystem for both small and large teams.
Traditional Monolithic Workflow and Challenges
In a monolithic architecture, components are tightly integrated, leading to complex dependencies and scalability constraints. A typical monolithic data flow might look like this:
- Data Integration and Storage: Data from various sources is ingested using Azure Data Factory (ADF) and stored in a central SQL Database.
- Repository Pattern for Data Access: A repository layer provides CRUD operations and acts as an abstraction over the database.
- CQRS Pattern for Complex Queries: CQRS segregates read and write operations, optimising performance by separating models for reading and writing.
- Service and Controller Layers: Service layers encapsulate business logic, while controllers manage requests and map them to services.
- API Management: Azure API Management (APIM) secures and monitors API access.
While this architecture works well initially, as applications grow in complexity, maintaining the interdependencies and scaling becomes challenging. Microservices provide a more modular approach, allowing each component to operate independently.
