The 4 Major Benefits of Composable Architecture
In the digital world, terms such as innovation, flexibility and change are all around us. And all of it has to happen at the speed of light because standing still with a digital product is equivalent to going backwards. But as a Product Owner or IT manager, how do you know which choices to make in the field of technology in order to move forward, now and in the future? Gartner advises: ‘Organisations have been prepared for one kind of future, but now they must prepare for multiple future scenarios.’ So in order to be innovative and flexible, you must be prepared to go with the flow. Is your organisation already set up in such a way that processes can be adapted, if necessary? My tip for being prepared for what the future brings is composable architecture. You've probably heard the term composable before. But what exactly is composable architecture and what are its main advantages?
What is composable architecture?
Let us start by explaining what composable architecture actually is. The answer is in the name. Composable, or 'interchangeable', ensures that, as an organisation, you can make changes quickly and easily when necessary. But how does it actually work?
You can see composable architecture as several linkable 'islands'. These islands are all separate applications or microservices that you offer. The applications and microservices are constantly connected to each other by means of APIs. You can build a composable architecture from scratch, but the power of composable lies precisely in the fact that it can also be applied to existing digital architectures. All new separate applications or microservices are then linked to your current digital architecture by APIs.
Do you still find the idea a bit vague? You can compare composable with IKEA kitchens, meaning you have a number of options to choose from. You put together the kitchen you need with all the features you find important. Think of the colour of the cabinets, the size of the hob, the tap, the colour of the worktop and so on. The same applies to composable architecture. You compose your digital architecture with all the features that are important at that moment for the organisation and for the end user. You can easily add or remove features that impede the optimal user journey. That way, you offer a better customer experience because you can compose the optimal journey across all different applications and microservices.
These are the 4 biggest advantages of composable architecture
1. Faster changes
Composable architecture has many advantages for making your organisation future-proof. To be able to innovate and be flexible, you need to anticipate the organisation's needs and combine this with what the end user needs. This can be a buyer, customer or employee. It is not unusual that wishes and requirements can change very quickly. If you really listen to your users, a flow of often small, but important changes will occur.
By making these changes, you as an organisation get even more out of the applications you have and you prevent them from having to be replaced completely at some point. By applying composable architecture and connecting all islands separately, it is easier to adjust one island. Through analysis, you can optimise and scale up small pieces. The rest of the islands remain the same and do not need a new release. So if you really need to, you can prepare a new release and make it live tomorrow, after testing.
2. Eliminate technical debt
One of the biggest pain points in IT is technical debt. Technical debt occurs when a new feature or digital product must be delivered quickly, and fast delivery is a higher priority than clean code. If it happens once, this is no big deal. But imagine if this happens several times. It then becomes increasingly difficult to deliver new things quickly and easily because the codebase has become too large and confusing. It becomes a project in itself to get rid of this technical debt and to perfect the code for the next release.
The advantage of composable architecture is that you can simultaneously tackle your legacy and technical debt. Evolution instead of revolution. Instead of first having to clear all the technical debt before the feature can go live, you can tackle it at the same time. The big advantage is that your legacy and technical debt is no longer a barrier. Your end-user gets the new services they are desperate for, while you slowly reduce your technical debt.
3. Prevent your data from becoming fragmented
Another irritation for Product Owners and IT managers is data. And now you’re probably thinking; data is a good thing, right? In an efficient company that keeps learning, the majority of decisions are made based on available data, and that's not going to change. But what do you do when data is missing? Or when duplicate data comes in? Or when the quality of the data does not meet the requirements at all?
If you are not careful, the addition of new services, such as a new proposition, a new marketing activity, or introducing a new system creates new datasets that are not part of your existing data structures on which you run reports. This is because these new services are realised on platforms that have their own databases, with their own structure. Reference data is entered twice and before you know it, you have both built up more technical debt and taken a step backwards in terms of getting your data in order.
Composable architecture ensures that data is immediately sent in the right direction and retrieved from the right places. That way, when introducing new user journeys, we ensure that tech debt is immediately reduced and the data quality in the organisation improves. Do you want to send specific data to your CRM? No problem at all! Would you like to transfer the same data to the SEO team? It's a sure thing. You are in total control of where your data ends up, even in the long run.
4. Always up-to-date
Suppose your organisation is stuck with one IT platform; then you are also dependent on their product backlog and prioritisation. What if the update you need only comes in a new release in a month’s time? In addition, IT managers say they spend more than half of their budget and time updating their ecosystem to match the updates of these IT platforms. A waste of time and budget, right?
hen you use composable it is much quicker to update one application or microservice when needed. The remaining 'islands' that do not require an update simply remain the same. Easy, isn't it? So with composable, your digital product is always reliable, secure and up-to-date, and you spend your budget on improving your services instead of updating your single-vendor platforms.
Quickly get to work!
With composable architecture, you create an agile ecosystem that allows organisations to adapt quickly and make new features live even faster. Would you like more information about composable technology? Get in touch, we can sit down together to discuss it.
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