A new organization has emerged in the content management system space with members from across the industry. Named the MACH Alliance, the organization is a global consortium of CMS vendors, technology partners, and eCommerce platforms who are focused on providing an open framework for collaboration and problem-solving.
The alliance aims to reduce complexity for CMS users and professionals through education, knowledge sharing, best practices, research, and development. In this article, we cover the basics of the MACH Alliance including what it is, its manifesto, its advantages, and how dotCMS fits into the concept of MACH.
What is The MACH Alliance?
Formed in June 2020 and founded by Contentstack, commercetools, Valtech, and EPAM Systems, the MACH Alliance is a non-profit corporation whose aim is to introduce an open, best-of-breed-based enterprise technology ecosystem.
The MACH Alliance offers enterprise companies guidance on how they can grow by implementing a composable, best-of-breed architecture to build open tech ecosystems that are based on Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, SaaS, and Headless technologies.
The MACH Alliance Manifesto
The alliance’s manifesto rests on the concept of best-of-breed software, which refers to companies building a tech stack based on their specific needs and using the best tools possible for their particular use case, which is something we’ve always been advocates of at dotCMS.
Let’s take a closer look at MACH Manifesto to understand more about the main tenets of the alliance:
Ensure that a best-of-breed-alternative is always available
Share technical knowledge about why best-of-breed trumps suites
Create best-practices that show companies how to transition to best-of-breed
List and explain selection criteria for enterprises such as what to ask when RFPing
Publishing technical content demonstrating how to integrate technologies
Educating the public with events and resources on the benefits of open technologies
MACH Architecture Explained
Now that we have gone over what the alliance is and briefly explained their main tenets, let’s go over the architecture (the MACH) behind it.
Microservices
At its core, microservice architecture involves developing software applications using smaller modular services rather than building software as one, large unified block of code called monoliths. Microservices work independently with other services, giving the software greater flexibility. Yet, well-built microservices can also work together when needed, ensuring end users never feel like their experience is fragmented in any way.
API-first
An API-first CMS —also known as a best-of-breed CMS— doesn’t try to be a jack-of-all-trades. Instead, it focuses on being an excellent content management and authoring solution while giving its users the APIs necessary to integrate another best-of-breed software to build a truly solid, modular tech stack.
Cloud-based
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services, including servers, storage, databases, and software over the internet or the cloud to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.
Headless
Headless technology decouples content from the frontend delivery layer, also called presentation. This approach enables enhanced connectivity between different services using APIs, making omnichannel content delivery possible.
Advantages of the MACH Architecture
Moving from monolithic architecture or suite-based platforms can be daunting for enterprises, but a best-of-breed or MACH-based architecture gives global companies the freedom to choose a tech stack that makes sense for their specific business concerns. Along with this, MACH offers several other advantages such as:
Faster speeds: Agile architecture and methodologies ensure that MACH-based platforms provide companies with a faster route and a solid MVP. For enterprises, MACH also enables faster rollouts and better concepts that can be scaled faster and lower costs.
Best-of-breed Strategy: The MACH architecture enables you to take advantage of all the best, new technologies in the market and prevents enterprises from purchasing a platform that might be bloated and with features that they don’t need.
MACH Architecture vs. Suite Architecture
MACH | Software Suite | |
|---|---|---|
Flexibility | Highly flexible to implement new services, designs, and business models | Inflexible system where you are limited to the platform’s capabilities |
Scalability | Allows for flexible scaling of services. | Not scalable; limited in terms of functionalities |
Innovativeness | Flexibility to innovate and meet modern demands | Restricts innovation |
Modularity | Promotes the use of modular, microservices-based architecture | A large integrated architecture |
Frontend Agnosticism | Push boundaries to build across several digital touchpoints and channels | Integrates logic and presentation together in one system |
How dotCMS is on Par with the MACH Alliance
While dotCMS isn't part of the MACH Alliance, it shares its philosophy and matches the definition of a MACH technology. Here are some of the reasons why dotCMS fits into the definition.
No Need For Updates
Contrary to monolithic suite software, a SaaS-based, best-of-breed technology stack doesn't need upgrades. Enterprise companies can't spare time on manually upgrading and updating everything; a SaaS-based CMS like dotCMS takes these two cumbersome tasks from enterprise companies' hands and makes it possible for them to scale and operate with confidence without fearing downtime.
Integrability and Extensibility
One of the best things about the best-of-breed architecture is that it enables integrations with hundreds of tools. Building a DXP with dotCMS is an integration bonanza because we've built a centralized app store containing all of your integrations of dotCMS-powered digital marketing and digital commerce tools. The dotCMS app store has NoCode controls for business teams and contains native integrations with Amazon Rekognition, Google Translation, SAML, and Edit Mode Anywhere.
Faster Time to Market
The MACH enables enterprises to move faster, iterate, and get products in the hands of the users faster than when compared to monoliths and suites. dotCMS' best-of-breed architecture ensures that enterprises don't spend more time than they should when building and validating their ideas. dotCMS provides enterprise clients with a platform ready to create tailored experiences that suit the customer's needs.
Best-of-Breed Software Stack
Enterprises lose a competitive edge when they fail to adopt and leverage the best technologies on the market. dotCMS, on the other hand, has a best-of-breed philosophy. We believe integration should be lightweight at all levels, making digital experience integrations fast and efficient. This means, as well, less risk to core business applications and creating a solution architecture that remains flexible enough to cater to continuous change with an overall lower total cost of ownership.
Improved Customer Experience
Monolithic platforms aren't the best when it comes to delivering timely customer experiences . CMOs and their marketing teams need to be in the driver's seat when it comes to customer experience orchestration. That means codeless interfaces built with marketers in mind. dotCMS empowers marketing teams to create agile customer experiences that will decrease time-to-market on new devices while reducing costs in the process.
Enhanced Security
A monolithic architecture may have bugs and security vulnerabilities resulting from modifications or upgrades to a particular component. As a best-of-breed platform, it is our job to provide modern tooling that allows responsible developers and administrators to deliver the most secure content managed site or content application available. dotCMS is primarily concerned, from a security standpoint, with the security issues that arise from the dotCMS tooling itself, the admin console, and related web services, rather than any specific web or content implementation built by third parties within the platform itself.
For enterprises who run business-critical applications on dotCMS, the Enterprise Edition brings additional value and peace of mind to help to optimize the total cost-of-ownership, ROI, and innovation.
If you want to learn more about how dotCMS helps enterprises read more here: dotCMS Enterprise.