PolyGlot Persistence for Microservices-Based Applications

Traditionally, applications have used a single database to fulfill their storage requirements. However, limiting storage to a specific type of database system may result in a compromise in some functionalities of the application due to database features. This paper proposes an architectural framework for an application to exploit heterogeneous databases with a polyglot approach. A working application to demonstrate the use of different databases for various modules of an application is presented. Two instances of MongoDB and a single instance of MySQL have been used in the proposed application. Container technology is used to deploy the application's services like databases and web server. The use of microservices has resulted in a completely flexible and scalable application that utilizes the desired features of heterogeneous databases for its constituent modules. The proposed architecture is validated and compared with existing models. The performance comparison results are tabulated for six crucial parameters listed in the ISO/IEC 25010 standard.