Abstract. In the contemporary software market companies face a challenge of continuously developing and delivering their products quickly. To answer this challenge the correct software architecture must be chosen. The conservative approach is a monolithic architecture, where all the code base is in a single unit. This approach offers simplicity and rapid initial deployment but faces challenges when companies need to scale their software. A more novel approach is a microservice architecture, which was enabled by the growth of cloud infrastructure. This architecture offers higher scalability and autonomy but brings with it a higher level of complexity.
In this study I conducted a literature review to examine both architectures to understand the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches. The intent was to get a clear understanding of the underlying criteria that companies need to consider when making an architectural related decision. The current literature revealed that the advantages and disadvantages of both architectures are quite well known, but there is ambiguity regarding the criteria that is outside of the functional requirements discovered during the design phase. This study offers a baseline to further study decision criteria regarding monolithic and microservice cloud-based applications. Further studies can be done to further examine the criteria on a more detailed and practical level
