Robotic Process Automation has revolutionized how organizations work for almost two decades. Its proven benefits have supercharged the growth and performance of many companies of all sizes across a wide range of industries.
The technology has reached a high level of maturity, and today, platforms like Atomatik enable business users to independently automate their process, without the need for coding or external technical support.
Automation can be delivered to companies in several ways. We’ve covered the differences between on-prem and cloud-based installations in a previous article. This time, we want to focus on automation, and RPA particularly, delivered in a microservices architecture.
By the end of this article, you will hopefully have a clearer understanding of the characteristics of this implementation.
The concept of RPA as microservices
Microservices is an architectural style that structures an application as a collection of small, independent, and loosely coupled services, each running its own process and communicating with lightweight mechanisms such as APIs.
Standalone platforms like Atomatik have proven their worth in automating various business processes that are slowed down by manual, repetitive tasks.
A microservices architecture has the potential of taking things to the next level, depending on organizational requirements.
Essentially, the microservices architecture involves breaking down various components and functionalities of a platform into smaller, modular services. Each service focuses on a specific task or capability within the automation process. These services can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently, providing flexibility and agility in managing the RPA solution.
Let’s look at some of the key features of accessing robotic process automation as a microservice.
Modularity
Automation as microservices enables organizations to scale individual components independently based on demand and resource requirements. The microservices architecture allows for the development and deployment of independent services, ensuring that each component can be scaled up or down as needed. This flexibility eliminates the need to scale the entire RPA system and optimizes resource utilization.
This enables companies to leverage technology diversity and gives them freedom, flexibility, and scalability. A traditional approach requires scaling the entire system, which for some organizations can be resource-intensive and inefficient.
The modularity of microservices lets them scale components individually, focusing resources where they are needed the most.
Independent scalability
The independent scalability of automation as a microservice lends itself to many scenarios. Let’s imagine a company is experiencing a surge in the workload of a particular digital worker management microservice. It can be scaled to handle the increased load, without affecting the other microservices. This ensures that resources are efficiently utilized and avoids unnecessary scaling of components that are not experiencing high demand.
This is a particularly useful benefit for companies working with varying workloads, related to fluctuating demands or seasonal spikes in activity. With microservices, they can dynamically adjust the capacity of individual components to handle peak loads efficiently.
Fault Isolation and Resilience
Microservices architecture ensures that if one microservice within the automation platform encounters a failure or experiences issues, it does not have a cascading effect on the entire system. This fault isolation capability enhances the overall resilience and availability of the solution.
In a monolithic architecture where all components are tightly coupled, a failure in one part can easily disrupt the entire system, affecting the functionality of the RPA solution as a whole. However, in a microservices architecture, each microservice operates independently and communicates with other components through well-defined APIs. This isolation ensures that a failure in one microservice is contained within that specific service, preventing it from propagating to other components.
Inter-service communication
Microservices interact with each other through well-defined APIs, facilitating seamless communication and data exchange between different components. This communication mechanism promotes loose coupling, allowing individual microservices to evolve independently and fostering greater flexibility within the RPA system.
The use of well-defined APIs ensures that microservices can communicate with each other in a standardized and reliable manner. These APIs serve as the contract between services, outlining the expected inputs, outputs, and behavior. By adhering to a consistent API structure, microservices can exchange data and messages efficiently, regardless of the underlying technologies or programming languages used for their implementation.
To sum up
The microservices architecture brings significant advantages to the automation space. The modular nature of this approach provides flexibility, scalability, and adaptability, allowing organizations to achieve higher levels of efficiency and productivity. Adopting Atomatik as a microservices approach also enables agile development, seamless updates, and improved resilience. By embracing RPA as microservices through Atomatik, organizations can unlock the true potential of automation, driving digital transformation and staying ahead in today's competitive business environment.
If you want to learn more about how Atomatik can empower your organization to reach its goals quicker and better than ever before, book a call with our sales team.