For software developers, it was clear that the traditional approach to development no longer works for all scenarios, especially with complex applications. Monolithic architecture, which has everything in one single codebase, makes it difficult to maintain. If one part of the codebase is updated, you’ll run into dependency after dependency as you updatethe entire codebase. This is why developers are adopting composable architecture as their go-to solution.
This approach is being adopted in multiple industries that need to be agile and adaptable to meet modern consumer expectations. In fact, Gartner predicts that composable architecture is the future of business, further highlighting its role in software development.
In this guide, you will learn about the implementation strategies of composable architecture to help you harness its full potential in your projects, as well as some other key aspects you should be familiar with.
Before we start exploring the implementation strategies for composable architecture, it’s important you understand why it is used and its core principles.
Why should you care about composable architecture?
Over the years, the approach developers used to build, test, and deploy software has continuously changed. It often involves a mix-and-match of multiple patterns or a single pattern that is largely driven by customer needs and business requirements.
In the early 90s, monolith architecture was seen as the “swiss army knife” solution, addressing most challenges organizations faced at the time. However, as demand and business requirements grew, developers realized that monolith architecture was difficult to scale and maintain.
Over time, other patterns like modular programming, object-oriented programming, and many more have been used and improved upon to address business challenges. Despite these advancements, these patterns have also proven to be limited in their capabilities, which has led organizations to adopt composable architecture.
You may wonder if another pattern will emerge after composable architecture. We will have to wait and see. For now, composable architecture is considered the future because:
- It emphasizes separation of concern, like the designs of the application programming interface (API), before implementing the underlying service. It makes it easy to scale the application.
- It gives the flexibility to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and just about any emerging technology.
- It uses Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to define independent deployable components, which makes it flexible and scalable.
Principle of composable architecture - MACH
The history of composable architecture can be traced back through several stages. It started with the adoption of other software as a service (SaaS) tools, followed by the emergence of headless architectures, and then the introduction of the MACH principle.
MACH stands for Microservice, API-first, Cloud-Native, and Headless. It is a set of principles, patterns, and technologies that enables developers to solve business problems by using the best-in-class services and technologies. It supports the use of in-house and third-party components that are scalable, pluggable, replaceable, and can be independently deployed.
Microservices
Microservices are sets of independent, testable, and scalable services coupled together to build software applications. Each service represents one business capability that you can develop, deploy, and scale independently. With microservices, you have the flexibility to replace or scale certain parts of the application without disrupting the entire system.
Think of an e-commerce platform that can have user authentication, payment processing, and product catalog services that perform seamlessly together to deliver a smooth user experience.
API-first
In API-first applications, the APIs are designed and built before developing the actual application. APIs are the primary means of communication between different components and services. When they are prioritized in the development process, it becomes easy to build a consistent user experience because it’s clearly defined how each component interacts with each other.
Think of a travel booking system that operates on the web and mobile, with components like bookings, search, and payment processing that communicate through well-defined APIs.
Cloud-Native
Cloud-Native is a way to build and run applications on the cloud. An application is “Cloud-Native” if it uses composable infrastructure to build, deploy, and scale as needed. Cloud-Native applications are cheaper, can scale up and down based on demand, and have a failover mechanism to ensure the application is available at all times.
Think of a streaming service that can adjust its resources based on the number of viewers.
Headless
If your architecture is “headless”, it means the backend (content management and business logic) is separated from the frontend (user interface). Headless architecture allows you to customize your content and deliver it to multiple platforms like websites, mobile apps, IoT devices, and more.
Think of an online news platform that can use a headless content management system to provide content to a website and mobile app through a single headless backend.
The MACH principle advocates for a modern approach to developing software that is modular, reusable, scalable, resilient, interoperable, flexible, and loosely coupled.
How to build a composable architecture
One of the main benefits of composable architecture is the modular approach to developing, testing, and deploying applications. It gives you the flexibility to build a unified system that can quickly adapt to required changes and is easy to maintain and scale.
To build such a system, you’ll need to follow the steps below:
- Step 1: The foundation of implementing composable architecture is to clearly outline what the business needs to achieve and set goals on how to achieve them. This is a shift from the existing architecture (Monolith) to a more modular and flexible approach.
- Step 2: Break down the system into reusable components and clearly define their responsibilities and boundaries.
- Step 3: Specify how components will communicate with each other using APIs or other well-defined interface.
- Step 4: Choose the right technology stack (languages, libraries, and frameworks) that supports modularity and protocols (REST, GraphQL, or message queues) for components-to-components communication.
- Step 5: Develop each component as an independent unit by using dependencies injection and shared libraries to reduce dependencies between components.
- Step 6: Create API gateways or other integration points to manage communication between software components.
- Step 7: Test the components as an individual (unit test), how they interact with each other (integration test), and how they work on the overall system (end-to-end test).
- Step 8: Set up continuous Integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) and other deployment mechanisms to ensure components are consistently deployed.
- Step 9: Implement a monitoring and logging system to track performance, health, and other useful metrics of components.
- Step 10: Create documentation, user guides, best practices, and how-tos for the components, interfaces, and APIs.
- Step 11: Continuously improve the architecture based on user and developer feedback.
Composable architecture and technology stacks: What to know
Tooling and technologies play an important role in composable architecture. The languages, libraries, and frameworks you use can make or mar your development process. Below are some guidelines to help you select the appropriate technology:
Project requirements
Begin by analyzing the project requirement and the business goal in terms of size, speed, and security. This will help you determine the technologies that best align with your needs.
Modularity and interoperability
Select technologies that let you build your application in modules and make it easy to integrate with. This will give you the flexibility you need to develop, deploy, and update them independently.
Cost and licensing
Ensure that the technologies and tools you’re adopting are within your budget. If not, open-source alternatives might be a better option. Learning curve and team expertise
Consider the current skill set of your team and the effort required to pick up new technologies. It’s important you choose technologies you and your team can easily adopt.
Community and ecosystem support
When choosing technologies, consider how frequently they are maintained and how responsive the community is when developers encounter blockers. This will expedite your development process, and you won’t be worried about the technology becoming obsolete.
Below are also some categorizations and associated technologies you can adopt based on your project needs:
- Front-end technologies: React, Vue, and Angular.
- Back-end technologies: Express.js, Django, and Spring boot.
- Communication protocol: REST API, gRPC, and GraphQL.
- Messaging system: Kafka and RabbitMQ.
- Containerization and orchestration: Docker and Kubernetes.
- Deployment platform and cloud services: Vercel, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform.
- Version control provider: GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.
Composable architecture vs. Packaged Business Capabilities (PBC)
Another term you’ll come across when selecting technologies and building composable architecture in your development process is Packaged Business Capabilities (PBCs).
PBCs are pre-built business features or functions that can be easily integrated into a larger system. They include all the necessary data models, business logic, and API required to perform their functions and integrate with other PBCs to build software systems. Basically, the main idea of PBCs is building software systems from small, independent systems with packaged capabilities.
The relationship between PBCs and composable architecture is that PBCs let you build composable systems by using pre-existing components (developed internally or provided by external vendors) that can be combined to build a larger system.
composable architecture in practice
We have explored why you need composable architecture, its principles, how to build it, and the technologies behind it. Let's see some real-world use cases by Monogram, a composable digital agency that helps its clients build, scale, and migrate traditional monolithic platforms to a composable architecture.
Hy-Vee
Hy-Vee is a prominent Midwest supermarket chain offering grocery shopping and delivery, pickups, prescription refills, and more. They collaborated with Monogram to help build their customer-facing applications (Hy-Vee Red Media, Hy-Vee Opportunity Summit, and Hy-Vee KidsFit).
Monogram used a composable approach and technologies like Sanity, Next.js, Vercel, and Tailwind CSS to deliver applications that are fast, secure, and easy to update. For more details, you can check out the Monogram case study on Hy-Vee.
GoHealth Urgent Care
GoHealth Urgent Care is a healthcare organization that makes it easy to get quality on-demand care. They reached out to Monogram when they realized that their current website could no longer meet their need as an enterprise-level healthcare.
Monogram used a composable approach and technologies like Next.js, Prismic, Vercel, Turborepo, Tailwind CSS, and NextAuth.js to completely redesign the online scheduling system, optimizing the user experience and promoting GoHealth’s new virtual care-first approach. For more details, you can check out the Monogram case study on GoHealth Urgent Care.
Next steps
Adopting composable architecture requires a good strategy, following best practices, and selecting the best-in-class technologies. This process can be complex, overwhelming, and challenging. Partnering with a competent and experienced partner like Monogram will help you streamline the process and ensure a successful project.
See our portfolio, learn how we are leveraging composable architecture, and imagine a composable version of your application. Contact us today for a free consultation.