MACH drives change to a new digital environment

What’s new from MACH Alliance?

Since the beginning of this movement, recognition and growth have been the keynote. Evidence of this is the joining of AWS to the Alliance as part of the group of independent software providers that seek to promote an open and modern architecture for digital experiences.

One of the world’s leading technology companies, Amazon, understands the value of adopting and encouraging companies to use a modern architecture that facilitates innovation in our websites and applications.

They know this because they experienced firsthand the problem of having a monolithic system. The first versions of their online store (Amazon.com) were monolithic, but as the platform grew, the slowness in the development and release of new features and functionality also did.

MACH Alliance’s 5 principles

MACH Alliance supports new technologies that ensure the business world has the conditions to face the future and drive digital experiences with open and connected technology. Within the alliance, vendors that are competitors in the eyes of the market work together to deliver the best solutions.

But to guarantee that the best alternative is clear and visible, MACH pursues these principles:

• Share technical knowledge about MACH and why and when it’s better than a suite can offer.
• Show organizations best practices for transitioning to a MACH architecture.
• List and explain the selection criteria for companies, such as what to ask for when requesting the best technology providers and what criteria to use during the selection process.
• Publishes technical documentation that demonstrates how to integrate MACH technologies.
• Organizes events where the industry is educated on the benefits of adopting a headless, open, and cloud-native technology ecosystem.

How does the old way of investing in technology work?

To understand this, we first need to know the problem arising from investing in platforms that follow a traditional approach.

In a monolithic system or suite, we receive a well-defined price for the basic capabilities we want to hire, and we exactly know what we will get from our supplier; yet, this is true only at the beginning. Initially, we may have a cost plan for the next few years, but how accurate are they?

Let’s remember that new business challenges, competitors, strategies, tactics, and requirements constantly come up and force us to update our platforms. Here is where the problem lies: we are talking about costly and risky modifications that we would have to make every 3 - 5 years if we want to stay competitive.

In other words, they are rigid systems that can be very expensive to customize and extend to meet your exact needs. On top of that, money is not everything; modifications to monolithic systems can take quite some time, as was the case with Amazon when their web store used a traditional approach.

How does technology investment work according to the MACH philosophy?

With MACH technology it is different, as it’s integrable, scalable, replaceable, and improving all the time. Here we no longer work with a single supplier or a single solution, but with many moving parts and several suppliers who offer us a variety of pricing models—together, these form a solid solution.

The MACH philosophy allows us to break down a large platform into smaller integrations, thus leveraging the best vendors to solve each challenge, ensuring a better distribution of cost and investment risk over time.

The most important thing is that we can modify, update or replace some feature of our application or website without affecting another one that does not pose any problem.

Benefits of headless technology for companies

Transitioning to a headless model is imperative to perfect the digital experience for our customers. We must adopt these technologies to gain the adaptability and flexibility needed to create new and intuitive digital experiences.

To make it clear, when we talk about a headless model, we mean that our frontend connects with the backend through APIs. That is, we work independently on the side that the clients see from the side that contains the processes and functionalities.

A MACH- centric approach, which at the same time is headless, gives us greater flexibility within the platform by decentralizing decision making. This is one of the main benefits.

We would no longer have a single team making decisions but several teams that manage a holistic view of the platform and more expertise in each area. In turn, we save costs, accelerate growth and improve organizational culture:

• Costs: At the beginning, we will have to assume an initial cost for the payment of new and existing platforms, but this will be savings in the long run. Monolithic platform providers usually “inflate” these prices because they know we are tied to them, but we can change providers without any difficulties. On the other hand, this technology makes the way the organization Works more efficient, which translates into cost savings.
• Growth: Although growth does not occur directly, this model positively impacts conversions in SERPs and in resulting site visitors, to name a few examples, which are ultimately part of the growth.
• Culture: An environment where every part of the company is aligned and working towards common goals creates a better working relationship

At Reign, we know that companies constantly search for quality technology that is highly compatible with their business. That is why we are in line with MACH, which emerges by and to provide the best digital solutions to these companies.