A Comparative Analysis of Microservices and Monolithic Architectures in the Development of an IT Helpdesk System Using ASP: A Case Study on Performance Speed and Resource Utilization

Abstract

This research aimed to compare the performance of microservices and monolithic software architectures in developing an IT Helpdesk system using ASP. The comparison focused on three main aspects including response time, memory (RAM) usage, and CPU usage. The evaluation covered four core system tasks: (a) creating a service request, (b) responding to a service request, (c) confirming the service request response, and (d) displaying graphs. Two versions of the IT Helpdesk system were developed: one using a monolithic architecture and the other using a microservices architecture. Performance testing was conducted by simulating workloads with varying volumes of data (100, 1,000, 50,000, and 100,000 requests). Resource usage was monitored using the Resource Monitor tool, and the results were analyzed to calculate averages and compare differences. The study found that in terms of response time, the monolithic architecture outperformed the microservices architecture in all tests, with response times approximately 58% faster on average. In terms of resource usage, the microservices architecture consumed significantly more resources, using about 84% more RAM and 70% more CPU on average, largely due to the overhead of managing multiple independent services. While the monolithic architecture demonstrated superior speed and resource efficiency in small- to medium-sized systems, the microservices architecture offered greater flexibility, scalability, and ease of maintenance, making it more suitable for long-term system growth.