Heightened customer expectations are disrupting industries around the world. As consumers expect personalized messages from companies, real-time access to data, and accurate search results with or without typos, traditional technology suites struggle to keep up.

The MACH Alliance was formed to advocate for composable, truly open and future-proof architecture that is microservices-based, API-first, cloud-native SaaS, and headless. The Alliance’s momentum is surging, and while there are a host of companies delivering MACH-based technology, there is often less coverage of what the approach demands.

Enablers: Providing the Ecosystem for MACH Architecture

The Enabler membership category applies to organizations that are heavily utilized by MACH organizations to deliver a MACH service or technology. They are enabling a MACH provider and the ecosystem, but don’t offer a direct MACH solution. While a Vendor member produces an application that enterprises can buy, an Enabler member delivers a service or technology that provides the foundations for enterprises wanting to build application architecture in line with MACH principles.

MongoDB joined the MACH Alliance in January 2022 as one of the first Enabler members. As a leading cloud-native general purpose database platform, MongoDB has long been an advocate of microservice architecture enabling modern, flexible, and composable technology ecosystems for its 40,000 customers, spanning 100 countries.

Along with the MACH Alliance, MongoDB shares the common belief that the open architecture of modern software will propel current and future digital experiences. These new digital experiences require unprecedented personalized capabilities, delivered at scale, weaving a mesh of complementary microservices drawing data from multiple sources.

Building Your Future Tech Stack with a MACH Enabler

We spoke with Genevieve Broadhead, Principal for Retail EMEA – Industry Solutions, about why the Enabler category is an important one for companies considering MACH for their future tech stack.

“The MACH Alliance has been a really positive experience for MongoDB over the past year. We participate in the Tech, Marketing & Growth councils of the Alliance and have seen great output. The ability to collaborate with the best and brightest like-minded individuals is extremely valuable in helping us to understand and refine our thinking,” she said.

Sharing specific industry knowledge is one of the key elements of the movement, Ms. Broadhead added.

“It's great to network with thought leaders in the technology space and also share our experiences and guidance with new members. As a data company we’re naturally asked about the data layer: ‘How do you build a data layer to support a MACH Architecture?’ or ‘What are the requirements of a MACH data layer?’”

For a MACH architecture to be a success, it's vital that the data layer also follows the principles and guidance of the MACH Alliance.

“The architecture doesn’t end at the application layer. If you’re building a stack that wants to reap the benefits of headless or microservices, i.e. that is capable of increasing innovation, then it follows that changes to the data should be able to be made in an iterative and non-disruptive manner.”

MongoDB’s flexible document model allows this to occur at runtime, so that the data layer doesn’t hinder innovation, and is capable of the performance a modern application requires. As technology continues to enable transformative capabilities and boost operational efficiency, the demand for a scalable, cloud-native, data platform to underpin these technologies continues to grow.

MACH Goes Mainstream with Surging Adoption

We asked Ms. Broadhead how she feels MACH understanding has advanced among end users over the past few years, and if they’re seeing an increase in adoption.

“I’m seeing MACH get closer and closer to mainstream adoption, especially in the retail industry, where arguably the MACH movement was born. Concepts like ‘headless’ are now commonplace in discussions with IT decision makers and architects and I’m seeing a spread of the principles to new workloads,” she said.

“Having seen the initial success, these principles are being embedded into those same retailers’ supply chain optimization programs. Other industries are now getting on board. The next wave of MACH architectures will cross industries into telecoms, healthcare, financial services etc.”

Raising awareness is a key objective of the MACH Alliance, and as Enablers, MongoDB are key supporters, helping to spread the word by participating in marketing campaigns alongside its independent software vendor (ISV) partners like commercetools and Ampliance in the retail industry.

“Retail is a huge market, with both retailers modernizing, building in-house, and partnering with retail ISVs like commercetools and Ampliance, who have built their products on MongoDB. It is very exciting to be bringing the greatest MACH thought leadership together to help spread best practices across the industry.”

So, would Ms. Broadhead recommend membership of the Alliance to other Enabler companies? “Absolutely! We’re building together the next wave in technology transformation. As technology enablers, we have insight into what is possible and what will be required for the future of enterprise architecture - working together ensures the best result. Good architecture increases innovation, and that’s a message that we want to help the MACH Alliance spread.”

To join the movement and sign up as an Enabler, check out the members page.