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What is MACH Architecture?
Digital transformation no longer feels like an elective if you want to succeed; it’s a requirement. Discover why MACH architecture is the key to your business' growth.
Digital transformation no longer feels like an elective if you want to succeed; it’s a requirement. Discover why MACH architecture is the key to your business' growth.
September 14th, 2022
Digital transformation no longer feels like an elective if you want to succeed; it’s a requirement. Discover why MACH architecture is the key to your business' growth.
If you work in a modern business with an omnichannel presence, you have to operate in a world in constant flux, one that changes at lightning-fast speeds. What customers want, how they want it, the evolution of technology, the supply chain, the cloud, work-from-home infrastructure, social media marketing…you name it. Digital transformation no longer feels like an elective if you want to succeed; it’s a requirement. To get more specific, it’s best-of-breed composable stack vs. monolithic tech stack, and many enterprises are opting for the former to gain greater business agility and control.
This is where MACH architecture comes in.
In addition to summoning imagery of powerful fighter jets ripping through the air (which, as you’ll come to understand the more you learn about MACH, is quite fitting), MACH stands for Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless.
While these individual parts aren’t novel concepts, together they make up a technical framework that’s greater than the sum of its parts. As commercetools puts it, each of these technologies “provides a truly open, modular environment that enables businesses to embrace innovation and respond to change more quickly, and with less risk, than ever before.”
Every component is pluggable, scalable and replaceable, which means that they can be continuously improved through agile development without the business being stuck to a single ecommerce vendor or investing in massive technical infrastructure. Hence, digital transformation that’s speedy, agile and significantly more secure.
Let’s break things down and examine these interconnected pieces
Imagine an ecommerce business and all the functionality and services that are present within it–checkout, payment methods, promotional codes, customized search, product reviews, wishlists and so on. This business needs an application for each functionality. Being microservices-based means that the applications within the business’ entire system are independently developed, deployed and managed.
All these aforementioned elements and moving parts within the system communicate with each other, and work together, via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). In other words, all functionality is exposed through APIs, which make it possible to tie together two or more otherwise separate applications or services.
Cloud-native SaaS is software that’s hosted on a scalable cloud rather than on-premise. By developing and deploying on the cloud, there’s no need for installation or maintenance and updates and upgrades happen automatically and instantly without customer effort, downtime, licensing costs, or other fees. Its scalability allows businesses to meet growing demands over time.
Headless architecture is based on decoupling the front end and back end, which allows developers to deliver content without a front-end delivery layer. In other words, headless makes it much easier to create personalized UX experiences. Back-end developers can publish different types of content, such as products, blog posts or customer reviews to any screen or device (e.g. smart watch), not just websites or mobile apps. And front-end developers have the flexibility to present that content however they wish.
Not surprisingly, more and more businesses are choosing headless thanks to its seemingly limitless flexibility. Case in point: our team is receiving increasingly more leads for headless ecommerce projects.
Now that you understand the basics of MACH and why it’s such an exceptional technical framework, let’s get into exactly how it could benefit your business.
1. Reduce Time-to-Market
Because of the flexibility and agility that comes with building with a MACH architecture, developers can roll out MVPs and prototypes much faster than they can with legacy architectures.
2. Foster Innovation
The possibilities are limitless with MACH architecture. As an agile team with the most advanced technologies at your disposal, you can build incredible products, services and experiences for your customers. For example, you’ll have an easier time implementing voice search technology and machine learning with MACH architecture.
3. Improved Quality in Technology and Experiences
With MACH, you can pick and choose the tools you need and replace and remove them whenever you want. You can focus on building tailor-made solutions. On the other hand, with software suites, it's common to get stuck with a set of tools that fail to adequately address your problems. Furthermore, with the best tools at your disposal, you can deliver world-class customized experiences to your clients or customers across different channels and markets.
4. Easy, Automatic Changes
Who doesn’t love automation? Because MACH architecture is cloud-native SaaS, all releases and upgrades are automatic, which means they’ll always give you the latest functionality and don't interfere with the integrity of the system.
5. Decrease Operational Risk
With the microservices in your system working independently of each other, you don’t have to be locked in with a specific vendor, which can be costly if their services are no longer suitable for your needs. This is especially true if these vendors experience many disruptions and security risks or fail to deliver high-quality solutions on time. With MACH, you can replace services quickly and efficiently, building a powerful collection of tools and technologies.
In the next blog, we’ll talk about how the developers at Sunrise Integration implement MACH Architecture into our client projects. Keep an eye out for it!
Don’t want to wait for the next blog but want to learn more about MACH architecture and all the exciting possibilities it presents to your business? It doesn’t matter whether you’re in ecommerce, SaaS or logistics, Sunrise Integration is the strategic partner and technical expert you need.
