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What is MACH Architecture?
MACH architecture is a set of technologies and principles used to build flexible and scalable architecture for modern software platforms. MACH is an acronym for microservices, API-based, cloud-native, and headless. In this sense, MACH architecture’s definition is any app that combines these components.
As part of this architecture, each component adds MACH different capabilities:
- Microservices: Microservices enable platforms to deploy functionalities independently.
- API: APIs permit apps to integrate with third-party apps and share data.
- Cloud-Native: Cloud-native infrastructure gives a service real-time scalability and automated updates.
- Headless: A headless design means that backend and frontend systems are decoupled from each other, offering more flexibility in how the user experience (UX) is presented.
Techopedia Explains MACH Architecture Meaning
MACH architecture that combines microservices APIs, cloud-native, and headless technology together creates a foundation for building software platforms where each component can be independently deployed, maintained, replaced, and scaled.
This gives an organization more flexibility not just when developing a solution, but also in how the app is presented to end-users. The segmentation of MACH also makes it easier to upgrade and maintain components over the long term.
History of MACH Architecture
According to the Mach Alliance, a non-profit industry body that promotes the adoption of MACH architecture, the history of MACH architecture can be traced back to a handful of key innovations that laid the foundation for modern software platforms.
Pivotal moments highlighted by the Mach Alliance include:
- Salesforce’s launch of the first mainstream SaaS offering in February 2000.
- AWS’ launch of S3 and EC2 in March 2006.
- Cloud computing became the new normal after the launch of GCP and Azure in 2008.
- Microservices entering practical use between 2012-2013.
While it’s difficult to pin down exactly when MACH emerged as a cohesive philosophy – the MACH alliance was formally founded in June 2020.
Today, many web apps like Shopify have begun to incorporate these mutually beneficial technologies to enhance the user experience offered to customers and to increase their overall operational efficiency.
The MACH Alliance
The MACH Alliance is a non-profit industry body composed of a group of technology companies that advocate for the adoption and advancement of the MACH ecosystem. The organization also aims to support and educate buyers by sharing guidance about its benefits.
In addition, MACH Alliance also provides a certification program to make it easier for customers to identify high-quality vendors.
Organizations that have completed transformations toward MACH can also become MACH Alliance Ambassadors and further advocate for the adoption of this technology across the globe.
5 Factors to Consider When Evaluating MACH Architecture
There are a number of different factors to consider when evaluating MACH architecture. Some of these are covered below.
1. Does It Align With Your Business Needs?
One of the most important factors to consider is whether MACH principles align with the overall needs of your business. Are scalability and personalization essential to the service you provide to your users? Will they help enhance the customer experience? These are questions you should answer before making the decision to adopt.
2. Would MACH Be Able to Integrate With Your Current Systems?
In order to get the most out of MACH architecture, you ideally want to be cloud-native. If your cloud maturity isn’t fully developed, then it’s going to be difficult to get the most out of a MACH setup.
3. Does Your Team Have the Necessary Skills?
Adopting MACH infrastructure will come down to your team’s overall skills, and whether they have the technical expertise to deploy such a solution. If you don’t have those skills in-house, consider whether you could add new staff.
4. Can Your Organization Afford to Adopt?
Digital transformation efforts are expensive, and investing in the infrastructure and expertise to implement MACH can quickly add up. As a result, it’s important not just that you have the funds to be able to sustain such a project, but also that you’ll generate a return on your investment.
5. How Will Your Users Benefit From MACH?
Finally, you’ll want to make sure you have a thorough understanding of how adapting MACH infrastructure will improve your customer experience. Will greater personalization options, better digital experiences, and faster page load times offer more to your users?
The Role of MACH in Software Development
Using MACH in a software development environment is useful because it not only gives developers the flexibility to develop scalable applications but also means that multiple development teams can work on individual components separately, instead of trying to build and deploy everything at once.
For example, each team can work on developing a different independent service. In the short term, this makes an app faster to develop, while also making it easier to update and maintain over the long term.
At the same time, decoupling the backend and frontend systems together gives much more flexibility over the design of an application, opening the door to greater customization and personalization options.
Monolithic Architecture vs. MACH Architecture
Many applications are developed under a monolithic approach – where all components of a platform, including the user interface, server-side application, database, and backend logic, are deployed as part of a single entity, developed in a single codebase.
In contrast, MACH architecture breaks down a platform into a set of sub-services, which communicate with APIs, are cloud-native, and are highly scalable. The frontend and backend of these applications are also separate entities with different codebases.
It’s important to note that monolithic architecture is less scalable than MACH because each component needs to scale together, whereas MACH enables different segments of an application to scale individually.
Monolithic architecture can be slow to bring to the market and can be more difficult to maintain as the application becomes more complex over time. MACH is thus preferable for getting apps to market quickly, which are scalable, future-proof, and easier to maintain.
Examples of MACH Architecture
Taking a MACH approach to app development has become increasingly popular over the last decade.
Some of the most high-profile examples of MACH in action are listed below.
1. Shopify
One of the biggest vendors using a MACH approach is Shopify. Shopify is a popular cloud-based e-commerce platform that enables users to set up their own custom virtual storefronts.
Shopify’s platform is highly API-driven, able to integrate with third party systems and applications, giving users the ability to market, promote, and manage their stores with a variety of services and functionalities.
2. Gymshark
Gymshark is a popular athletics fashion brand that adopted MACH architecture in 2015 after struggling to keep up with consumer traffic during Black Friday. As part of its MACH approach, it used a combination of Shopify, Algolia, Contentful, React, and AWS Lambda to build a new platform.
Together these elements helped improve the search experience for customers by offering more relevant item suggestions, AI-generated keyword synonyms, and providing personalized collection pages.
3. Contentful
Contentful is another vendor that’s been part of the MACH Alliance since 2001 and used the technology to great effect. Contentful uses MACH as part of its composable content platform, to enable customers to choose “the solution that fits best for them,” whether for short or long-term projects.
In practice, this means enabling customers to create and manage content experiences for different digital channels using multiple tools like Contentful Platform, Contentful Studio, and Contentful Ecosystem and over 96 integrations.
Advantages and Disadvantages of MACH Architecture
Using MACH architecture offers enterprises a range of advantages and disadvantages. Here are some of the advantages:
| Advantages | Description |
| More Flexibility | Organizations can develop, test, and deploy services independently, giving more flexibility throughout app development. |
| Greater Scalability | The use of cloud-native infrastructure enables applications to upscale and grow as needed, which is useful if there’s an increase in customer demand. |
| Rapid Development Process | Multiple development teams can work to develop lots of services quickly, reducing the time-to-market of software. |
| Extra Customization Options | The separation of frontend and backend systems means that developers have more ability to customize services without needing to modify the entire app. |
As with any type of architecture, there are also some distinct disadvantages. Some of these are as follows:
| Disadvantages | Description |
| Highly Complex | MACH can be difficult to implement for less experienced developers, particularly when integrating independent services together. |
| Increased Cost | Implementing MACH can be expensive as it requires heavy investment in infrastructure and expertise to implement. |
| New Cyber Risk | Each independent service needs to be secured individually, which gives security teams more potential vulnerabilities to manage. |
| Needs Specialist Expertise | Organizations need highly skilled and experienced developers to be able to develop under this approach. |
The Bottom Line
MACH architecture is a go-to approach for organizations that want to build highly flexible and customizable platforms that can be upscaled over the long term. While this requires significant investment and expertise, for larger organizations, the gains in agility and scalability are well worth it.
