Digital content has grown exceedingly in the last decade, both in size and type. Earlier, what used to be just web or e-commerce content, for websites, is now large 4K videos, related metadata, distribution channels, integrations, and much more.
More than often, such systems were developed as all-in-one solutions and catered to all the needs of managing and publishing. However, as consumption habits have changed, so has the level of intricacies in content management. Large legacy systems allowed users to manage, display, and publish content, whereas now, with increasing complexities, the roles of stakeholders and content editors have become more collaborative and granular.
Decoupling monolithic software into services is nothing new but has gained much traction in the past few years. The decoupled service-oriented or microservices-based architecture is very suitable for large platforms where content needs to be integrated with multiple own or third-party systems. It also comes in handy when content needs to be delivered to various other platforms or devices.
But as much as microservices seem like a brilliant idea, integrated services (similar to a monolith) are still preferred by many. It is mostly due to the associated ease of development, standard user interfaces, and foremost the tight integration amongst each other. In the real world, it’s similar to buying a laptop that works than purchasing individual parts to put one together.