Composable Software: The Future of Business Innovation and Agility
Summary: Discover the power and potential of composable software in our comprehensive guide. Understand how it fosters innovation, scalability, and efficiency, transforming your business operations. Learn about its principles, use cases, and how it can outperform traditional off-the-shelf solutions. Embrace the future of software development with composability.
More businesses are choosing composable options over traditional off-the-shelf solutions to fast-track innovation. Why? Because composable is an intelligent choice. By embracing it, digital businesses can transform their software architecture, create custom solutions, and achieve remarkable agility, scalability, and efficiency.
Composability means combining a unique set of loosely coupled, modular parts to create or extend new applications in software development. This is done using low-code/no-code (LCNC) tools.
Unlike traditional, monolithic software, composable business solutions enable organizations to create applications to solve their unique problems or achieve specific goals. This approach veers from traditional software development, where applications are built via code and marketed for particular purposes. Over time, standard software requires updates and eventually becomes outdated, whereas composable software is more future-proof.
"Composable applications, workflows, and business processes are increasingly being developed internally to fit use cases in an agile fashion instead of commercial off-the-shelf applications. Composable software has been aided by the viability and increased use of low-code/no-code applications," according to Gartner's "Predicts 2023: Composable Applications Accelerate Business Innovation."
This comprehensive guide provides insights to help organizations use composable systems to their full potential. It includes a brief overview of the benefits of composable infrastructure, software, fundamental principles, and design elements, example use cases, app development, workflows and best practices, challenges and pitfalls, and future trends of composable software.
Why move to composable software?
Here are some advantages your organization may gain from ready-made apps to custom-designed composable solutions.
Agility and rapid innovation
Composable empowers organizations to respond fast to changes. They can quickly create new software or update applications to meet market trends or customer needs.
Scalability
Since different composable software components can be developed and updated independently, scaling applications up or down is more straightforward to meet changing demands.
Reusability
Simplifying existing components to accelerate new software development is more manageable with composability. Composability prevents having to start from scratch. Developers can quickly add, remove, or change features and functionality.
Principles of composability
Composability involves combining independent elements or building blocks to create something new. For example, a modular home is shipped in individual parts and constructed into a livable dwelling. And great songs are composed of both music and lyrics. Each can be created independently with its elements, but the magic happens when combined.
Similarly, building composable software needs to have the boundaries of pre-made solutions. Each component can work independently yet still communicate seamlessly with other elements. They can work together to do things like:
share data
improve performance
enhance efficiency
speed up processes.
Composable software and systems are typically cloud-native, eliminating the need for resources to maintain infrastructure and update software, often lowering IT costs.
Composable software building blocks
Here's an overview of the main building blocks of composable software.
Components
These self-contained parts each perform a task or function. They can use any programming language or framework, be packaged and deployed independently, and repeatedly reused in various applications and services.
Components represent various functionality, including business logic, data access, user interfaces, and integrations with external systems. For example, a component might describe a customer registration process, a product search algorithm, or a payment processing workflow.
APIs
Application programming interfaces (APIs) enable components to communicate and interact with each other. They allow functionality sharing from one element to another, external applications, or users. For example, an API might expose the customer registration process component to a website or mobile app.
Microservices
Microservices are applications broken down into small, independent services. Each is responsible for a specific business capability and integrated via APIs. Microservices are assembled from functional components and orchestrated to create applications and services.
An e-commerce website, for example, may include microservices for:
product catalog
shopping cart
checkout
order fulfillment
Real-world use cases
Here are three examples of how composable software can improve platforms, applications, and collaborative tools.
E-commerce platforms
E-commerce platforms use composability to improve flexibility and scalability. These complex systems must often integrate third-party systems like payment gateways, shipping providers, and inventory management systems, which can be complicated and time-consuming.
With composable software, e-commerce platforms can dynamically integrate with these systems without changing their core code. Adding new features and functionality, such as new payment methods or shipping options, becomes faster and easier.
For example, a clothing retailer might use composable software to integrate with a payment gateway that accepts Bitcoin, which allows customers to pay for their purchases with Bitcoin without going through a third-party service.
Cloud-native applications
Built from microservices, cloud-native applications developed with a composable framework are ideal because they can handle fluctuating traffic and be updated frequently.
Composable software can orchestrate microservices and ensure they work together seamlessly while automating many steps.
For example, a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) system can use composable software to coordinate different microservices like customer data service, sales automation, and marketing automation. The CRM system will provide a unified view of customer data and automate many sales and marketing tasks.
Collaborative tools
Collaborative tools, such as document editors and project management tools, can use composable software to build modular features that enhance user experience and engagement.
For example, a document editor might use composable software to add a feature allowing users to track document changes, providing transparency into who made changes and when they were made.
A project management tool leans on composable software to add a feature enabling users to create custom workflows to automate tasks and track the progress of projects.
Designing for composability
Developers should be mindful of the following elements of composable software design.
Component identification
This process involves assessing an application's requirements and then identifying the components that need to be built to meet them. First, break down the application into small, independent pieces for one well-defined task, using the features for different applications.
API-first approach
APIs are the interfaces that enable components to communicate with each other. An API-first approach involves defining the API components that will need to communicate with each other seamlessly.
Dependency management
In composable software, it's crucial to balance the autonomy and interconnection of components. They should be autonomous enough to be reused in different applications. However, they should also be interconnected sufficiently to work together smoothly.
Development workflow and best practices
Here are some best practices for composable software development workflow. By following these practices, organizations can create composable software that is agile, flexible, and resilient.
Interfaces and protocols
Using standard interfaces and protocols ensures components can communicate consistently and predictably, simplifying the composition of parts, as developers don't need to worry about specific implementation details for each one.
Standard interfaces and protocols also make it easier to reuse components. If a feature uses a standard interface, it's reusable in any application supporting it, saving developers time and effort since they don't have to recreate the component functionality from scratch.
Finally, standard interfaces and protocols simplify composable software maintenance. Updating a component, for instance, requires only changes to that component itself without impacting other features.
Below are some examples of standard interfaces and protocols used in composable software:
HTTP – a standard protocol for exchanging data over the internet.
REST – an architectural style for designing web services that use HTTP.
JSON – a standard data format for exchanging data between applications.
Docker – a standard containerization technology for packaging and deploying applications.
Version control and compatibility - Version control is critical for software development, especially for composable software where different teams or individuals may develop separate components.
Version control helps ensure features are compatible and prevents changes in one feature from affecting others. Git, Subversion, Helix Core, and AWS CodeCommit are a few examples of version control systems. The best approach for a project depends on its size, complexity, and the preferences of those who will use it.
Developers also need to consider compatibility with the underlying infrastructure early. For example, a component developed in Python should be compatible with the Python runtime environment.
Testing strategies
Testing is as essential for composable software as traditional software to ensure it works as intended.
Many different testing strategies can be used for composable software, including unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and acceptance testing. The best testing strategy for a particular project depends on factors like its size and complexity, budget, resources, and time constraints.
Documentation
Documentation is also essential for composable software. It should explain how various components work and how they can be assembled and combined. Recording this information makes it easier to identify features for reuse later on.
The documentation should also include information on the version control system and testing strategies assisting developers when managing or extending the system in the future.
In addition to the technical documentation, it is also important to provide user documentation. This documentation should explain how users interact with the system and use the different components.
Security and governance in composable systems
Organizations should follow these fundamental principles of security and governance to protect data in composable software environments and prevent security incidents.
Data Isolation
Data isolation involves separating different data types from each other protecting sensitive data from unauthorized access or modification. Encryption, compartmentalization, and access control lists can be used to isolate data.
Access Controls
Access controls are the mechanisms organizations use to restrict who can access their data and systems. In composable software, these controls can be implemented at the component, application, or system level.
Component level: Access controls can restrict which components can communicate with each other to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data.
Application level: Access controls can restrict which users can access specific applications so only authorized users can access sensitive data.
System level: Access controls can restrict which users can access the entire system, protecting the system from unauthorized access or modification.
Monitoring and Auditing
Monitoring and auditing are critical for detecting and responding to security incidents in composable technologies. Monitoring gathers information on system activity, such as who accesses data, what data is accessed, and when it was accessed.
Auditing tracks changes to data and systems, identifying any unauthorized changes that may have been made to sensitive data or designs.
Overcoming challenges and pitfalls
While building composable software offers many benefits, such as increased flexibility, scalability, and speed to market, it is challenging. These include complex debugging and troubleshooting, performance considerations, and a steep learning curve.
Complex debugging and troubleshooting
One of the biggest challenges of composable software is the complexity of debugging and troubleshooting. When made of multiple components, identifying the source of an application problem becomes more difficult. An issue might exist within a single piece or stem from how components interact.
To solve this problem, organizations must adopt a systematic approach to detecting and fixing problems. This approach should include a clear understanding of the architecture and behavior of each component, the tools and techniques for debugging and troubleshooting, and a process for tracking and resolving issues.
Performance considerations
Another challenge of composable software is performance. When multiple components are interconnected, confirming the system performs as expected can be onerous. System performance can be influenced by several factors: latency between components, component load, and configuration.
Organizations should consider performance implications when making design decisions to overcome this challenge, including choosing suitable components, setting them up correctly, and monitoring system performance to find and fix any issues.
Steep learning curve
The learning curve for composable software can be steep, especially for developers accustomed to working with monolithic systems because building composable software requires a different way of thinking about software development. Developers must know how to assemble and configure components and fix system problems.
Organizations need to provide training and support for their developers to overcome this challenge. This training should cover the basics of composable software and the organization's specific tools and techniques.
To learn more about overcoming common challenges associated with going composable, read our blog, "How to avoid the pitfalls of a composable architecture."
Future trends in composable software
Here are three trends shaping the future of composable software development:
AI-driven composition
AI is being used to automate the assembly of composable components based on contextual needs. For example, AI can suggest the most appropriate features for a task or assemble components to optimize performance or save money.
More code and data are available, and AI algorithms are improving, leading to the growth of this trend. As AI-driven composition becomes more sophisticated, developers can create applications faster without spending time on manual assembly.
Serverless architecture
Serverless architecture simplifies the cloud services and computing storage and network model that abstracts away the underlying infrastructure, making deploying and managing composable components simpler. With serverless, developers can focus on writing code without worrying about provisioning or managing servers.
Serverless architecture is excellent for composable software, allowing developers to easily adjust application size without managing capacity, including composable applications, which are often dynamic and must adapt to changing needs.
Expansion beyond code
Composable software can be applied to data and business processes. For example, data can be composed into new datasets or insights, and business processes into new workflows.
The increasing availability of data and the need to automate business processes support this trend. Organizations become more agile and efficient as composable concepts are applied to data and business processes.
Increased accessibility
Low-code and no-code platforms simplify software creation and usage for non-programmers, democratizing software development and enabling more people to participate in the digital transformation and economy.
These trends are making developing and delivering composable applications more accessible and more efficient. As a result, we expect to see composable software being used to create new and innovative products and services in a wide range of industries.
Learn more
Are you ready to transform your digital experience by leveraging the power of composable software? Accelerate your innovation, enhance scalability, and boost efficiency with this future-proof technology.
Join the growing number of businesses switching from traditional off-the-shelf solutions to custom-designed composable systems. Be a part of the future of software development.
Contact our team of experts today for a consultation on effectively transitioning your business to a composable software framework. Let's innovate together and build a digital experience that stands the test of time.