Building Microservices with Node.js

Microservices split a system into independently deployable services. Node.js is a common choice for I/O-bound services, BFF layers, and event-driven workers.

Service Boundaries

Split by business capability-not by technical layer. A orders service owns order data; a notifications service sends email. Communicate via REST, gRPC, or message queues (RabbitMQ, Kafka).

Resilience Patterns

Implement timeouts, retries with exponential backoff, and circuit breakers. Use correlation IDs across services for distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry).

Shared Nothing Data

Each service owns its database. Avoid distributed transactions when possible; use sagas or eventual consistency for cross-service workflows.

Conclusion

Start with a modular monolith and extract services when team boundaries or scaling needs justify the operational cost. Node.js microservices shine at the edge of your system-API gateways and real-time features.