Which technology would least likely be involved in a microservices architecture?

In a microservices architecture, the design philosophy emphasizes building applications as a collection of loosely coupled, independently deployable services, each responsible for a specific business capability. The use of monolithic servers runs counter to this philosophy because a monolithic architecture consists of tightly integrated components, where all services are packaged and deployed as a single unit. This creates challenges around scalability, maintainability, and deployment flexibility, as changes to any part of the application require redeploying the entire system.

In contrast, technologies such as API gateways, container orchestration, and service meshes are fundamentally aligned with the microservices model. API gateways serve as a single entry point for clients, managing traffic routing, security, and protocol translation for the individual microservices. Container orchestration, often managed by platforms like Kubernetes, automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications, which is ideal for microservices that may be independently deployed. Service meshes facilitate communication between microservices, providing observability, security, and reliability without the need to modify individual services.

Thus, the presence of monolithic servers represents a departure from the principles of microservices architecture, making it the least likely to be involved in such a framework.