#003: Insights_From monolithic to microservices: The roadmap to MACH commerce?

No more monoliths. The future belongs to microservices architecture.

You might have heard the famous quote, ‘Perfect is the enemy of the good.' While it might have been true a while back, today's digital commerce industry is driven by perfection from customer experiences to marketing strategies, eCommerce features, omnichannel solutions, and mobile adaptability. Brands truly believe that if their solution is not magical or perfect enough, customers simply will replace it for a brand that closely aligns with their demands. And to some extent, it is true!

In all transparency, your eCommerce architecture has the potential to make or break your brand. If it can't adapt, flex, scale, or respond to the dynamic market needs fast, and efficiently, it isn't perfect enough for your customers.

However, today, these monolithic systems have become obsolete, tedious to maintain, and simply too old and rigid. They don't possess the scalability, flexibility, agility demanded by modern experience-led enterprises. In addition, with the increasing touchpoints and the necessity of rendering personalized services every time and everywhere, brands find it increasingly difficult to test new features, integrate new platforms and systems, and implement changes as per the market trends with inefficient, time-consuming, and burdensome monolithic systems.

Here we discuss the challenges faced by businesses still reliant on their monolithic structures and how microservices can be the silver lining in the cloud for the eCommerce architectures.

Monolithic structure: The traditional commerce system is no longer promising enough

Legacy systems or applications operate on a tightly knit front-end and back-end. That means, anytime you want to modify a part of the core system, you will have to run and deploy the entire procedure again and not just the modified component. In addition, you might even discover that the changes you made to one part of the system have negatively impacted others parts of the system that you had not anticipated or planned to change. This chain reaction not only delays and complicates necessary implementations but makes system upgrades difficult and tedious. But it wasn't always like that. Enterprises did update their large commerce platforms, partially digitized the organization, and drove sales and revenue for their online businesses until they started missing their mark. As personalization and customization became necessary, editing the database, code, and front-end platform every time made managing monolithic systems time-intensive.?

In addition, customers have an insatiable need for perfection. With so many online solutions available, if one brand fails to deliver, customers can quickly change courses towards the competitors. On top of this, enterprises require more flexibility from their commerce solutions and faster time-to-market, all while reducing operational costs.

It is a challenge for enterprises that need to evolve continuously and adapt to the market. As technologies complicate further, businesses will need to support everything that comes their way, which will be complex with outdated systems and architectures.

In addition, monolithic structures pose challenges for the developers as well.

• Lack of agility: In a monolithic architecture, there are separate teams for the front-end, back-end, or database. So, whenever a modification request is made, tasks must be shared across different teams, which delays the rolling out of new features or leads to missed business opportunities.
• Scalability issues: For consistent business growth, scalability is imperative. However, with monolithic systems, adding more servers or scaling up can only be achieved horizontally. It creates more issues than solving them.
• Fragile interdependency: In a monolithic architecture, the system's individual components are highly associated and dependent on each other, resulting in a single point of failure. Even if there is a minor issue in any of the systems, the entire architecture is compromised. It hampers developer productivity and prevents them from digging deep into the systems for issue solutions in case anything goes wrong, and they have to take responsibility for it.
• Repeated system testing: As monolithic architecture is one core unit, if a small segment of the system is changed, the entire application must be tested again. It makes comprehensive and repeated testing mandatory, even when it's not needed. Moreover, since the front-end, back-end and database are internally dependent, the efforts involved in automatic testing and quality assurance protocols rise by a manifold.
• Complex system: A commerce system should be such that it can constantly evolve and maintain pace with changing customer and market demands. However, all such prospects are challenging to implement and manage, even for developers versatile in it. Eventually, an enterprise, dependent or unwilling to transform its eCommerce legacy system, finds it hard to offer a personalized experience to its customers and scale as per the growing digital touchpoints, translating to a loss in sales, revenue, and ROI customer service base, and reputation.

As enterprises grow over time, monolithic systems' high coupling and low cohesion become unmanageable and difficult to understand and scale. Innovation becomes a struggle. It is where microservices come into play. It promises to solve all the shortcomings of the monolithic application and empowers organizations to transform and modernize their core systems in a way that satisfies their customers, secures their lead in the market, and elevates their business value.?

The Microservices Architecture solves the inefficiencies of the monolithic systems

To quickly fulfill customer's needs and rapidly scale for the future, organizations need a flexible, agile, and compartmentalized architecture. That answer is microservices.

A microservices system decouples the front-end and back-end, connected only via data layer/API. All the systems work independently of each other, which means that they can be developed, deployed, scaled, and managed independently. In a microservices approach, applications are designed as a set of small services, with each service functioning as a separate unit with its programming language, database, and framework. It allows a developer to work on different services independently without impacting other components. It means that businesses can select and customize features and functionalities their users require on their commerce platform. As enterprises expand, they can quickly scale their solutions in a decentralized environment.

With easy scalability, flexibility, and agility, the benefits of a microservices architecture are abundant, but modern brands don't just need an MSA approach; they need a MACH (microservices, API, cloud, and headless) system. MSA might solve all the inefficiencies of the monolithic architecture, but they still don't prepare enterprises for the future. And if the pandemic has taught anything to organizations, you must always be ready for what lies ahead. No organization wants to dive into an uncertain tomorrow. Instead, they want to be prepared for it.

With a MACH commerce platform, brands enjoy the capabilities of the cloud, the flexibility of microservices, and the freedom to launch digital stores that rapidly anticipate and fulfill consumer behavior and future trends. Only API-led, cloud-native, microservices and headless architectures allow for rapid application development with unified real-time data required by consumer-centric enterprises.

As soon as enterprises realize the desperate need for a MACH transformation within limited budgets and knowledge, they will also understand that commercetools is one platform that meets all these demands.?

Why does MACH commerce make sense in today's competitive market?

Once you've realized that MACH (microservice-backed, cloud-native, API-first, headless) commerce architecture is the right solution, the next question is, "what next? How should I adopt this system?"?

If you're looking for a MACH platform, in that case, there are only two probabilities: you either work on a monolithic application, or you might have built some existing applications with APIs, but lack the institutional knowledge around how to achieve complete digital transformation.

Such modernization is typically centered around three MACH tracks:

The silver lining of the Cloud-led transformation

Adopting a cloud strategy involves a radical shift in the technical operations, application functionality, and infrastructure costs. However, going to the cloud in digital commerce is more than a lift and shift activity. A cloud-based architecture like MACH empowers your solutions with the following capabilities.

DevOps

The unification of software development(Dev) and software operations (Ops) allows developers to deploy applications in lesser duration and at lower budgets. Modern commerce solutions require frequent modifications and deployment, and DevOps can easily and rapidly fulfill such demands.

Easy scalability during peak traffic

A modern cloud solution should scale up and down as per user requirements to ensure optimal performance at the lowest possible cost. It is one of the most significant benefits of a cloud-based solution. You can scale up your infrastructure during peak traffic times and scale down when needed.

Flexible, rapid, and low-cost development

With SaaS (software-as-a-service) and PaaS (platform-as-a-service) cloud solutions, businesses can focus on coding the applications and configuring them as per their needs instead of leaning their attention towards application deployment, hardware, and software requirements, data storage, and scaling.

Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment: Code. Test.?

In a monolithic architecture, from ideation to launch, the time taken to introduce applications to the market generally ranged between several months to years. Moreover, this entire cycle must be repeated when a new feature is being deployed or a code block was changed. It made things tedious for developers and business owners who longed for solutions that could minimize the ideation, development, and deployment duration. With the advent of automated technologies, applications can now be changed swiftly with minimal effort leading to several deploys per day. With CI/CD integration in digital commerce, fixes and updates can now be coded easily and rapidly, moving from the version control to the production stage in a matter of minutes as opposed to months and years with the monolithic systems. In a microservices environment, CI/CD includes:

1. A/B testing

It allows developers to test two or more variants of a page for user experience. The variation that performs better and adds value to the business for a given conversion goal is rolled out to the platform.

2. Canary Releases

A software testing technique that incrementally rolls out a version to a small subgroup of users before it is rolled out to the platform. If the version performs well, integrates seamlessly with other platforms, and benefits conversions, it can be enforced on the entire infrastructure.

3. Blue-Green testing

This technique runs two identical production environments: Green- the current version and Blue- the upgraded version. At any given time, only one production environment is active. You conduct deployment and testing on the blue environment. Once completed, you can switch the router so that all the incoming requests are directed at the blue version, which then becomes the current production environment. The advantage of using this technique is that it reduces software downtime and risks. At any given time, if something goes wrong with your new version, you can immediately roll back to the latest version, i.e., green in this case.

Shooting at the stars: Commerce platforms paving the way for the future

Today's commerce ecosystem is driven by customer experiences offered across every digital touchpoint. Brands and retailers can't do with a subpar or an at-par commerce experience; they need to continuously and rapidly drive innovation and omnichannel features.

Adobe Commerce: A leader leading its way to the future of commerce

Crowned as the Leader in Gartner’s 2021 Magic Quadrant, Adobe Commerce , previously known as Magento Commerce, leads the battalion of impeccable customer experiences. This robust, seamless, flexible platform has been fulfilling the needs of business verticals- B2B, B2C, and DTC, you name it. Its headless architecture is a hard-line proposition where merchants explore a mix of services or solutions for their online stores.

Merchants can either construct Progressive Web Application (aka an app that runs as a website) powered by the PWA Studio to create primary site experiences. Or, they can use Adobe Experience to customize their retail websites’ frontend for multiple touchpoints while also assisting leverage its features in mapping complex customer journeys. However, this approach is not mandatory. Merchants can build custom front ends using PWA Studio for varied breakpoints and web/social/ mobile experiences and/or employ Adobe Experience Manager for a full hybrid deployment. Such competitive flexibility and reduced time-to-market offered by Adobe Commerce’s headless architecture proves its mettle in the dynamic retail landscape.?

Adobe Commerce allows for headless deployment using REST APIs and GraphQL APIs. While REST APIs are reliable and powerful, especially during bulk processing, nothing beats the speed, agility, and intuitive developer experience offered by GraphQL APIs. Moreover, GraphQL APIs are highly flexible and scalable in architectural changes and, when doing so, do not impact the existing APIs. its unrivalled performance is attributed to data retrieval, exacted to the specific needs and demands. However, Adobe Commerce is not the only platform employing GraphQL APIs. It is used by several leading eCommerce platforms, which means, it's a set industry standard.

With custom heads, businesses can employ the expertise of their in-house skilled developers and develop their own React frontend. Of course, this proposition requires deep experience and technical acumen in frontend development that can suffice the native compatibility offered by PWA Studio. Moreover, in case, a merchant is trying to reduce their time-to-market, building a custom frontend won't be the right solution. However, there are immense benefits of building a customized storefront since merchants can spend time integrating the solution with popular immersive technologies like AR, VR and voice commerce, amongst a few. Whatever the goal is, Adobe Commerce and its robust architecture allow merchants to explore all possibilities, features, and functionalities without impacting the running web stores.

Know more about how Adobe Commerce can help you build an immersive digital retail experience, here .

Salesforce Commerce Cloud: A microservices-led digital commerce revolution

A Leader in Gartner’s 2021 Magic Quadrant, Salesforce Commerce Cloud has fulfilled the commerce goals of several sizable organizations. Known for delivering personalized customer experiences in a developer-friendly way, Salesforce Commerce Cloud uses commerce APIs and other headless deployment options as per merchant goals. Its fast, flexible and trusted platform comes with a modern development toolset to allow speedy implementations, scaled to the exact needs. So, whether a merchant is building an online storefront, or a social store, a web store, or developing a commerce app, Commerce Cloud fulfills all requirements with ease.?

With the Progessive Web App (PWA) kit, merchants can stay atop the latest commerce trends, accomplish customer expectations, and build a customized frontend using headless sample app, commerce APIs, services and SDKs. Commerce Cloud gives merchants the freedom to build their own frontend experiences via SDKs, APIs, microservices, and dev tools across channels using the tools of their choice.?

With Commerce Cloud’s headless architecture, developer-friendly tools, PWA frontend, AI-powered personalization, and scalable commerce APIs solution, merchants can launch online stores at a reduced time-to-value and total cost of ownership. To keep up with the evolving customer expectations, merchants can quickly roll CX changes at a minimal deployment risk along with a 90- second rollback window.?

Commerce Headless storefront runs on Managed Runtime that allows automatic scaling as business needs grow, even during peak traffic periods. As a customized solution, merchants do not need to invest in a complex infrastructure and hosting fees. As a fully-managed platform, Commerce Cloud promises 99.99% uptime with personalized storefronts for mobile, social media, and websites. It allows merchants to run storefront experiences where the backend can be integrated with third-party services like OMS, PIM,and? ERP (read about Commerce Cloud and SAP integration here ) 3X faster via Mulesoft Accelerator.?

As an offering from the world’s #1 CRM platform, merchants can integrate Commerce Cloud with Marketing Cloud, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, and Customer 360 Platform effortlessly and seamlessly to gain a complete 360-degree view of their customers. Read more about Salesforce Commerce Cloud features here .

commercetools: The blueprint of modern commerce?

commercetools lays the foundation of a modern commerce platform from where you can build, grow and scale. Its microservices-based, API-led, cloud-native, and headless capabilities facilitate connecting your internal legacy systems, external API providers, and the commerce platform. With commercetools' modern development building blocks in a true cloud platform, retailers can deliver the best commerce experience across several touchpoints on a large scale. It abstracts the APIs and events between the corporate environment and providers. The corporation is the owner of code, deployment, and networking. They define API changes, updates, and testing. The API providers provide valuable APIs to the corporation; however, they can be replaced by competition. This abstraction allows enterprises to retain control of their interface without tying their applications with any licensed provider while innovating and optimizing customer experiences.?

In addition, the API approach enables flexibility in digital experiences delivered. You can control the type of experience and content you offer to your customers. However, commercetools' potential doesn't end here. It also takes care of the product and transactional aspects of the store- product information, checkout process, payment methods, order fulfillment, etc.?

With every aspect of your commerce platform in complete control through commercetools, enterprises can easily lay the foundation of memorable shopping experiences that quickly scale for the future.

Final Outlook

The modern customers want personalized experiences across every touchpoint- social media, website, app, messenger apps, and so on. The increasing breakpoints have created a renewed sense of urgency for merchants to build a unified omnichannel presence wherever the customers are. Building digital stores using the MACH (Microservices, APIs, Composable & Headless) approach allows merchants to stay agile and flexible throughout. With rising customer expectations, merchants need a sustainable, scalable, and flexible platform that helps them compete and lead consumer-facing applications and modify your commerce architecture iteratively and systematically.

With technology platforms like Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and commercetools you can easily lead this retail shift.

Download the complete eBook here: The roadmap to MACH commerce