MACH and what it means for development [Q&A]
Launched in June of this year, the MACH Alliance (MACH standing for Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless) is a non-profit group of tech leaders advocating for a new, open and best-of-breed enterprise technology ecosystem.
The Alliance aims to help enterprise organizations navigate the complex modern technology landscape with the belief that competitive advantage doesn't come from owning the stack, but rather from being free to select the best available resources for the moment.
We sat down with president of the MACH Alliance, Kelly Goetsch, to discuss how technology companies -- including the behemoths -- are changing the way they look at IT infrastructure. Goetsch points to Salesforce's September acquisition of Mobify, a MACH-certified company, in noting that technology leaders of all sizes have bought into this approach and in doing so, have set a standard that others must follow to keep up.
BN: Can you tell us a bit about what MACH means beyond defining the acronym?
KG: MACH essentially represents a modern, composable software strategy defined by working with smaller solutions that seamlessly integrate with one another. These best-of-breed solutions work together and function as a single unit, yet each part is interchangeable. That makes it easy to replace something if, for example, requirements have changed or a component isn't performing.
Companies are moving toward this more agile approach in order to ensure their business is future-proof.
BN: Can you give us some examples of companies that are MACH certified?
KG: Absolutely. We've got about 20 members currently, some that have been announced and several more that are soon to be named. Right now, the MACH Alliance is proud to call the following companies members: algolia, Amplience, Cloudinary, commercetools, Constructor.io, contentful, Contentstack, E2X, epam, Fluent Commerce, Four51, Frontastic, McFadyen Digital, mindcurv, valtech and Vue Storefront.
Most recently, it was announced that publicly listed SaaS e-commerce platform Big Commerce has joined.
MACH certification gives enterprises an added level of protection by confirming the vendor conforms to rigid MACH principles and can deliver on their promises. Think of it as an insurance policy that adds value by guaranteeing future proof technology.
BN: Why do you believe this is gaining traction now?
KG: This is not a new development. A series of technological advancements dating back several decades have led us to this point. We had the costly and difficult-to-maintain mainframe computers of the 50s, which saw an eventual transition to the 1990s where computing and infrastructure lived primarily on big iron servers. Enter REST APIs in the early 2000s, public cloud in the late 2000s and finally microservices. All of that has laid the foundation for today: We now have frontends calling APIs backed by microservices run as SaaS on public clouds. We’ve been building toward this as an industry for decades. This modern approach allows a degree of flexibility, performance and cost savings we've not seen before.
Add to that the pandemic, which has been a forcing function for businesses to not only digitize, but to do so in a smart way. Those who weren't technologically ready to respond to an unprecedented shift in the way business is done like we've seen are struggling. And in some unfortunate cases, businesses have folded.
The need to be agile and adaptable has never been greater. I know we're hearing that everywhere, but it's true. It's not just an indication of where we're headed. We're there now, and having an IT architecture that can pivot quickly and seamlessly as your business' needs change is critical.
We're also hearing from so many companies who believe there must be a better way than the old way of doing things. These companies are fed up with costly upgrades that drain time, resources and still don't do anything to enhance the customer experience. They no longer want to be tied to the roadmap of the tech giants, and they want their autonomy back. MACH enables that.
BN: What is it going to take to reach critical mass with a new tech standard like this, given that it's an uphill battle to have a fundamental shift in thinking and approach?
KG: We're not focused on critical mass; that will come in time. We're focused on driving a steady shift toward something better. Many companies are doing this already. MACH is a no-brainer to technologists. They have de-risked the option and are sharing their learnings. We believe MACH is already out of the early adopter phase and is starting to become mainstream, a promising sign that we're gaining real traction.
It's not easy to get people to shift their thinking when it comes to things that have been done a certain way for as long as they can remember. What's known and comfortable has a sense of safety. But comfort also makes us complacent, and complacency is the biggest business risk.
BN: With all of the benefits of a MACH architecture, why do you think companies are still bought into the old, traditional way of doing things -- the 'update treadmill,' as the MACH Alliance has referred to it?
KG: There's still trust in big tech and the age-old way of doing things. A new architectural approach means re-thinking and re-learning how things get done, and that takes commitment. That's a big part of why the MACH Alliance exists -- not only to advocate for this new approach, but to counsel companies on how to go about bringing it into their own enterprise, how to set up teams and how to manage processes. We're helping companies move to a new digital maturity level. It's not a small undertaking, but it's worth it. And once the shift is made, things are easier going forward, for good. Imagine how much time and money can be spent on innovation if it isn't spent on updating old systems.
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