Madrid, February 1, 2023 – One more acronym. In the world of technology, we are bombarded with acronyms and the only way to survive them is to know them, accept them and use them.
Apart from measuring the speed at which an aircraft flies, MACH is also an acronym that brings together a series of technological principles that underpin the most advanced software platforms. It may be pure coincidence, but the truth is that both words have to do with being ahead of the curve and on the cutting edge.
M: Microservices
These microservices refer to small, decoupled applications that perform a function together and replace monolithic applications. Each of the services that used to form a monolithic system are now decomposed into flexible and scalable microservices. They are called “micro” because they can be managed by a team of a few people and their development time is short; a matter of days or weeks.
They can be changed independently, and each service contains everything necessary for its provision. In addition, communication is done through lightweight protocols (HTTP, gRPC).
When harnessed to their full potential, microservices offer a wide range of benefits:
- Scalability: Each service can be scaled independently of others.
- Resilience: As services are loosely coupled, problems can be isolated from other components.
- Technological heterogeneity: Several technological stacks can be integrated to ensure that the right tool is used for the right job.
- Ease of deployment: Changes can be made to a single service and microservices can be deployed and distributed independently.
- Organizational alignment: Small teams collaborate to deliver business-oriented functionalities.
- Composability: The code base of the applications allows reuse and reduces complexity.
A: API-first
More acronyms, yes. Focusing on APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) enables scalable and reliable data to be transmitted quickly and reliably between services and IT layers.
They are standardized, which makes them easier to use and understand. They are also designed, documented and versioned to clarify the function or service to users. Through standardization, APIs can improve security and governance. And in general, they facilitate innovation and accelerate the development of functionalities and services.
APIsalso offer several important advantages:
- Greater flexibility: Each service can be developed independently without the need to achieve complex alignments.
- Lower costs:Reusing interfaces reduces complexity and facilitates maintenance.
- Automation: Workflows can be automated to speed them up and make them more productive.
- Time to market: APIs make it possible to implement changes faster and accelerate the development and deployment of functionalities.
- Security:It increases through standardized communication contracts for data access.
C: Cloud-native
Cloud-native solutions leverage the scalability, elasticity, resilience, and efficiency of the cloud. They are quickly deployed, as developers can easily test new ideas without the limitations of on-premises hardware and providers integrate with common DevOps tools.
They offer high scalability, i.e., IT capacity can be easily reduced and expanded, high-performance computing capabilities can be enjoyed without incurring upfront costs, and the pay-per-use model allows fluctuations in demand to be accommodated.
Cloud-native solutions also enhance data security, as cloud service providers offer features that enable secure data storage and management and facilitate information recovery in the event of loss.
It is also worth noting that these solutions improve efficiency and reduce application downtime and, above all, costs, since there is no need to purchase hardware or facilities.
The benefits of cloud-native solutions are cross-cutting and are felt across the entire technology stack:
- Agile enabled:Operations based on Agile and DevSecOps principles increase team autonomy and ownership.
- Increased scalability: Containerization and dynamic scaling ensure maximum system performance at peak demand times.
- Increased reliability and safety: Their modern distributed infrastructure maximizes uptime.
- Optimal use of data: Cloud-native solutions offer extensive capabilities for applying advanced analytics use cases.
H: Headless
Headless means that the front-end user experience is completely decoupled from the back-end logic and can be updated independently, which increases versatility. Moreover, non-technical employees can add campaigns and posts, freeing up developers’ time.
Headless architectures can be broken down into numerous microservices and also allow functionalities and channels to be added and removed quickly and easily.
The benefits of these headless architectures are many:
- Omnichannel: New channels and customized interaction modes can be added.
- Shorter time to market: Because new features can be developed and tested quickly.
- Higher conversion: By offering faster and more responsive applications, the user experience is improved.
- Personalized customer journeys: By tailoring customer experience.
- Single source of truth: Front-end systems are served by a single set of back-ends and databases.
The MACH approach benefits all stakeholders in the technology stack: customers, business leaders, IT managers and developers and engineers:
- Customers: MACH enables customers to move seamlessly between channels and enjoy personalized products and services, with a better shopping experience powered by technology, and fast, reliable, and feature-rich applications.
- Business leaders: They can lay the foundations for the omnichannel vision, increase conversion across channels, accelerate time-to-market of functionalities and reduce vendor lock-in.
- IT managers: MACH makes it easier for them to develop products and recruit staff, provides them with a scalable infrastructure and boosts data security and operational resilience.
- Developers/engineers: MACH allows them to reuse designs, make tools more flexible, gain autonomy within the teams and have a state-of-the-art technology stack.
It is clear that the MACH infrastructure only brings advantages and benefits to all parties involved and can be an excellentwayto improve customer experience and communication.
About DocPath
DocPath is a leading enterprise document software company that offers its international customers the technology that allows them to complement their ERP and implement advanced Document Output Management, Customer Communications Management and document software pooling processes.
Founded in 1993, DocPath is based in Europe, USA and Latin America and is present with its Solutions in companies around the world. Among its customers there are prestigious banks and top-tier corporations, facilitating the difficult and complex task of designing, generating and distributing their business-critical documents. DocPath keeps a strong commitment to R+D+i, an area to which it allocates a large part of its revenues, and in which lies one of the keys to its success.
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