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Semicolony ELI5 · comic

Monolith vs microservices.

One big shop where everyone works under one roof, versus a row of specialist stalls that each run themselves.

  1. Everything under one roof.
    sales kitchen stock one roof
    1

    A monolith is one shop: sales, kitchen, and stock all share a roof and a till.

  2. Hey, grab that for me!
    just shout
    2

    Talking between parts is cheap — just shout across the room, no walking outside.

  3. Fire! Everybody out.
    all of it goes down
    3

    But one kitchen fire can shut the whole place, and you cannot grow just the till.

  4. My stall, my rules.
    own stall, own till
    4

    Microservices split it into stalls — each its own team, own till, own hours.

  5. Back in five — carry on.
    closed grows alone
    5

    One stall can repaint or close without bothering the rest, and busy ones grow alone.

  6. You hear me over there?
    dropped across the street
    6

    The cost: stalls now shout across the street, and a dropped order is on you.

One big shop under a single roof, versus a row of stalls that each run themselves.
Semicolony semicolony.dev/eli5/monolith-vs-microservices/comic
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