As a business owner, you strive to remain on the top despite the ever-changing market dynamics and the competition facing the whole business sector. New technologies keep rising, and it is essential for all organizations to adapt to the new norms to remain relevant in the market and maintain a steady growth rate. This calls for the need for practical and strategic approaches that will see businesses achieve a competitive advantage. But then, how? It can be only through creating scalable and leveraging the existing data stacks & building innovative platforms for such businesses. That is where composable architecture comes in. The architecture enhances efficiency, speed, and agile development. This guide explains everything you need to learn about composable architecture. Keep reading for more useful insights.

What is composable architecture?

Composable architecture is a simplified, flexible, and sophisticated approach used by developers to design and develop impressive software systems. Also known as component-based architecture or modular architecture, composable architecture, therefore, helps developers create complex apps by using already existing smaller services instead of starting from scratch.

The processes, therefore, involve breaking large apps into smaller components that can be combined together and used to create new software solutions.

What are the characteristics of composable architecture?

The common characteristics that define composable architecture include the following:

• Well-defined interfaces

All the interfaces within the components are defined in a clear manner, and this makes it possible for them to communicate and pass data across.

• Independent

Every component is self-independent, and it performs a specific task. What’s more, each component can be applied to several configurations without depending on other components.

• Separate development and testing

Since the components are independent of defined interfaces, it means that developers can work on individual components by building and testing them separately without involving the bigger system. This is beneficial because it speeds up the development process and improves speed and efficiency.

• Re-useability

Developers can easily combine and recombine the components when creating different functionalities. This makes it possible for organizations to respond positively to the changing system and requirements.

Note: Using composable architecture in the development process will minimize the cost and complexity of developing software solutions. Besides, it will also speed up the marketing time.

What are the benefits of composable architecture?

Some of the top reasons for making composable architecture the best software development service include the following:

• Improved Efficiency & Development Speed

Since composable architecture advocates for dividing the system into small components that are independent, it enhances efficiency and increases app development speed because these components are independent.

Besides, it is easy to identify and correct any arising issues because such issues can be pointed out on specific components and not the entire system as a whole. As a result, an organization can speed up the whole development process and focus on other systems and features for faster markets.

• Flexibility & Adaptability

With composable architecture, organizations can build flexible and adaptable systems because they can reuse and adjust the already available components to adapt to the ever-changing requirements. As a result, organizations can respond to opportunities and handle possible challenges for a productive business environment.

• Ease of Maintenance

With composable architecture, it is easy to maintain and update the system accordingly because the individual components can be adjusted and rebuilt individually instead of changing the whole system. In the end, this saves time and other resources, thus reducing disruption risks to the entire system.

What’s more, when the system is broken down into components that are independent, it is easy for developers to note and correct errors, perform updates and make improvements without altering the whole system. As a result, the organization can keep the system in perfect working shape for a longer period.

• Reusability of Components

Organizations can easily reuse the already existing components to perform different functionalities instead of starting from scratch during the building or modification processes. This saves the organization’s time and other resources.

Use Cases of Composable Architecture

In the modern software development field, there are many cases where composable architecture applies. Some of the top cases include the following:

• Cloud Computing

For instance, when an organization wants to release an ecommerce app to deal with getting the number of users when the shopping is at peak (during crazy offer seasons), it can opt for a cloud computing platform that has a composable architecture instead of relying on the traditional monolith architecture.

With cloud computing, an organization can easily release computing requirements based on the demand of the workload. This approach, therefore, enhances the scalability and flexibility of the company.

• Web App Development

Ideally, developers can use composable architecture for both front end and backend web development.

For instance, when developing an ecommerce website, you can consider breaking it into small components, with each component set to perform a specific task instead of creating a monolith architecture for the whole system. Under the components, you will need:

• A payment service for money transaction processes
• A product catalog service for managing product details
• A shopping cart service for all purchase requirements, among many others

• Mobile Development

Unlike the traditional mobile app development approach, where developers could create a monolith architecture, the composable architecture uses the approach of breaking down the whole system into small independent compounds. This makes it easy for developers to recombine and reuse these components for other functionalities. Besides, this approach makes it easy to update and maintain a system, thus improving speed and overall performance.

For instance, a mobile app that requires multiple features will work best with composable architecture because developers can create the features as independent modules, which can later be reused to create another application.

Now, when one of the modules requires updates, the developer can update and adjust where necessary without touching the entire system. This makes it easy for companies to adjust the necessary features based on the changes in the business environment, thus increasing flexibility.

• IoT Development

Internet of Things development is directly related to composable architecture. In IoT development, there is a need for combining elements to easy interactions through predefined interfaces, and this is where composable architecture comes in. Developers, therefore, find it easy to integrate these components with other applications to form a reliable and solid IoT system.

Challenges of Composable Architecture and possible solutions

Even though composable architecture comes with a wide range of benefits, it has a set of challenges as described below:

• Security

In composable architecture, the system depends on different components that are from different sources. This means that every component has individual vulnerabilities and security issues, thus posing insecurity threats to the whole system. To curb this, an organization must plan a clear strategy to enhance data protection, authentication, access control, and end-to-end encryption measures are all put in place.

What’s more, an organization must monitor and keep auditing the whole system for any potential threats and possible security breaches. Therefore, a solid security culture must be implemented across all the teams to curb issues with security.

• Testing and QA

The higher flexibility nature of the composable architecture makes it hard to determine, test, and authenticate how the different components interact.

In composable architecture, the different components can be developed by different teams, which means the components are independent. To ensure the whole system works effectively, it is essential for the organization to standardize the entire system for standard testing and QA processes.

Besides, whenever a new configuration is made, the team must ensure in-depth testing to ensure all the parts work smoothly.

Another solution to this is to ensure the organization implements the best testing and QA practices, such as a robust monitoring & logging-in system, continuous integration & delivery, and test automation.

• Complex Workflows

Since different components in composable architecture have different processing requirements, data formats, and interfaces, it makes it hard and challenging to manage and control the whole system.

As a result, the organization must put in place a solid data governance framework that enhances simplified processing workflows and standardized data formats for all components. This, therefore, will improve the system’s reliability and overall performance.

What’s more, there is a need for detailed documentation and programs for training purposes to educate all the teams on matters concerning data governance frameworks and their significance to the entire system.

Conclusion

It is evident that composable architecture is a solid foundation for creating applications that can easily be scaled and tested. Developers can create complex apps by using different small components instead of starting from scratch. Composable architecture is a solution that will enable you to create a system that can easily adapt to changes.

Finally, get in touch with our web development company to know more about composable architecture.