Microservices allow developers to break down their applications into smaller, loosely coupled services that can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently. But you need a monitoring tool to track whether they work correctly – which means you need useful criteria for choosing one.

Many misconceptions about microservices persist, often to the detriment of companies hoping it’s a silver bullet to solve all their problems.

Your IT shop may aim to move to a distributed, containerized microservices architecture. But you don't want to throw away all your old code in the process. Here's what you should know before you get started.