Spencer Nguyen - April 13, 2021
From Silicon Valley startups to established corporations, more and more companies are shifting to a composable enterprise architecture. And it is easy to see why. The world of business technology is growing fast and in unpredictable ways. Businesses need to stay competitive by keeping pace with — or better yet, ahead of — emerging tech. Composable enterprises allow for this flexibility by establishing the groundwork for integrating new applications and functionalities. And an API makes all of this possible.
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What Is a Composable Enterprise?
The composable enterprise is a new modular business structure that lets you choose your own technology and features. Traditionally, businesses were tied to license agreements and monolithic software suites. But today, those limits are gone. APIs (or application programming interfaces) make this business architecture possible by enabling integration across apps, microservices, and packaged business capabilities regardless of branding, file format, or programming language. You can use these services as building blocks to support any business model you need. There is also room for legacy systems in the composable enterprise, as businesses often realize replacing foundational applications is easier said than done.
Getting to the composable enterprise often means your business will go through some form of digital transformation. The process looks a little different for each business, but the only real bounds are what you plan to do with your new composable business plan. That doesn’t mean you won’t run into some hurdles along the way.
Challenges of Composable Enterprises
The following are the main challenges facing composable enterprises.
Defining the Scope and Structure of Your Applications
Software development sprints along, and it isn’t stopping to let enterprises catch a breath. This means the structure of technology is also changing. We’re already moving away from a monolithic software structure and ESBs in favor of microservices, but even that may be falling short.
If you feel the strain of management overhead from bunches of microsystems, there is a possible compromise to be made. Pairing microservices with master data management may not be the traditional or expected way to work with microservices, but reconciling these previously incompatible structures with an API could be a way to bridge the gaps of each.
Change and Friction Between Business Leadership and Developers
Digital transformation doesn’t just mean a change in business technology. It calls for a cultural shift as well.
As the tech world explodes with new innovation, a business’s IT organization gets pushed closer to front and center. Companies are inching closer to becoming tech companies regardless of their true field — financial services, healthcare, e-commerce, and so on.
But as the IT silo breaks down, there is a need for more cooperation with the human side of the business. This means making technology more user-friendly. Fortunately, emerging tech makes this possible with low-code and no-code options to help businesses add functionalities with a top-down strategy.
This goes both ways. Business leadership also needs to approach new tech solutions with an open mind. Adding a CIO to the team is only the start. Moving to a composable enterprise means a complete remodel of the current business structure — everything that is comfortable and known about the business. In order for a digital transformation strategy to be successful, it is important to get both sides of leadership on board and working together. Once that happens, these two decision making departments are in the best position to brainstorm new innovations for the organization.
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Governance
The job isn’t done once your composable architecture goes live. Now is the time to maintain the structure and monitor for potential growth. Governance calls for a balance between risk assessment and business opportunity. You need to ensure your planned composability wasn’t all for nothing, but unchecked progress can mean you are missing potential areas of failure.
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How DreamFactory Can Help
When building a composable enterprise architecture, you’ll need an API to hold it all together. But building an API is not as complicated as it may sound. This is where DreamFactory comes in. DreamFactory is a SaaS API management system that can help you build and maintain APIs all across its lifecycle. We can help you build a new API from scratch, convert your old SOAP web service into a simpler, more flexible REST API, or add new business functions to your existing API. Our API experts have successful clients from all over the world.
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As a seasoned content moderator with a keen eye for detail and a passion for upholding the highest standards of quality and integrity in all of their work, Spencer Nguyen brings a professional yet empathetic approach to every task.