Confused about "MACH"?
I've been fortunate enough to get to know a number of the folks in the MACH Alliance in the last few months, and am energized and excited about the future of composable commerce and all the up-and-coming entrants into the market.
My conversations with Casper Aagaard Rasmussen , Sana Remekie and Kelly Goetsch helped me gain a stronger understanding after I set out to learn more. Tech providers like Constructor led by Eli Finkelshteyn , Sana's Conscia to solution providers in the space like Jason Cottrell 's Orium and my friends at Apply Digital . All summarized quite well by the one and only Rick Watson . In as much as it's an alliance just the same as the Avocado Grower's of America is... I've found it to be much more of a culture and open way of thinking than anything else.
Still, the confusing part is both that the terms get thrown around without an understanding (ex. "API-First" from some sites means "having API's") and that the same monolithic providers in the market and fast-followers are now saying they are architected in a services-based / composable way, and effectively meet the MACH standard, but aren't actually certified. Personally, I took karate as a child, and I know how to generally kick someone if I had to, but that doesn't make me a black belt...
Recently having been on the brand/retailer side, I can attest to how complicated it is to form a coherent digital strategy and then piece together an architecture and solution-set to achieve those while doing it fast (while in motion with broader transformation efforts). My old boss at my first job said "It's like doing open-heart transplants on a moving bus, with the patient wide awake".
Recommended by LinkedIn
My point is simple about composable - It's as equally beneficial as it is currently ambiguous, as well as being equally talked about as it is (mis)understood. The good news is, there's a not-for-profit group to help evalgilize and educate the market on it, of which I'm grateful to have so many people to openly share and educate me on these last few weeks.
The good news is - We're just at the onset of this discussion. While namely the alliance is centered around commerce solutions (commerce platform, content, search) there are also entrants anew in the OMS space and I imagine that continues well into the POS and perhaps even as far downstream as lightweight WMS solutions.
For my fellow Digital-Tech leaders, I'd love to connect with you and hear more about your journey on the brand-side of the discussion, having just left it myself. Let's compare notes and connect!
Apply Digital CTO | Digital Transformation | Future of Commerce | Enterprise Technology Innovation | Leader | Speaker | MACH Alliance
1yGood insight, Zach Z.. I particularly like the ""API-First" from some sites means "having API's" quote.
CEO @ Orium | Composable.com | Composable Commerce
1yGreat post Zach that I think captures where a lot of the market is at on this topic. I’m share your excitement in the growing number of vendors in related categories such as OMS, POS etc who have been purpose built for this use case rather than retrofit.
Körber Supply Chain - Director, Global Supply Chain Partners
1yI agree there there is a lot of misinformation out there, be sure you speak to neutral parties. There is a big difference between evangelists and zealots. My way to define the a couple of terms: Composable = Best in Class applications put together. Microservices = Build from Scratch and / or fill gaps. My favorite source (Sam Newman) of reality is both an “advocate for” and a “critic of” #microservices. Here is a great “proceed with caution” quote from Sam: You should be thinking of migrating to a microservice architecture in order to achieve something that you can’t currently achieve with your existing system architecture. - Sam Newman
Sales Channels Solution and business Architect
1yThank you for sharing your thoughts. some quick comments on your post: the MACH alliance already has vendors beyond the commerce space, for instance, Actindo, which is an ERP. Check the Re:platform podcast (hint: EP162). Composable architecture is not new. It has been theorised, sometimes formalised for many years by organisation such as TM Forum, Open Group, MEF (and certainly many more). Some also have product-level certification programmes. They use different names but it's the same principles. There is a real hype cycle on composable and MACH and I hear vendors making lots of claims about their products compliance with these concepts. It's becoming increasingly difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.