Disambiguation and Comparison of SOA, Microservices and Self-Contained Systems

There is an industrial shift from Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA) into Microservices; however, a quick review of online resources on these topics reveals a range of different understandings of these two architectures. Individuals often mix terms, grant false advantages or expect different quality attributes and properties. The purpose of this paper is to provide readers a solid understanding of the differences between these two architectures and their features. We provide both research and industry perspectives to point out strengths and weaknesses of both architectural directions, and we point out many shortcomings in both approaches that are not addressed by the architecture. Finally, based on this we propose challenges for future research.