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Microservices architecture is a software design approach where complex applications are decomposed into small, loosely coupled services that can be independently developed, deployed, and scaled. Each microservice is responsible for a specific business capability and communicates with other microservices through lightweight protocols such as HTTP or messaging queues.

One of the key characteristics of microservices architecture is the _ data management. Each microservice has its own private data store and manages its own data. This allows for independent data management and reduces the risk of data inconsistencies.