What is Composable Architecture?

[stevang]

So, what is Composable Business Architecture? Is this yet another "buzzword", or this is genuine approach to the Enterprise Architecture, Gartner is talking about[1]?

How is this related with Decoupled Integration (Architecture)?

And how is all this related with Event-Driven Architecture?

My 2 cents…

It’s a kind of buzzword, yes, not necessarily Gartner invented it – but it is meaningful one, to be honest….

Gartner talks about Composable Business (Architecture) in fact[1] – listing 4 main principles:

• More speed through discovery
• Greater agility through modularity
• Better leadership through orchestration
• Resilience through autonomy

If we go deeper – in the essence, it’s about (Architecture) building blocks supporting different business operations – which are connected seamlessly with each other. Of course, blocks are replaceable by other blocks (i.e. other products) supporting the same business operations or extending it. Actually, one may say nothing new that TOGAF is already not teaching us to do, as part of ADM[2]…

Sounds good? Well, maybe I am over-simplifying – but this is basically it...

We are talking about (Architecture) building blocks, which are not just built in any "best fit" style, but built in such a way to support agility, flexibility and resilience… And this is the main differentiator (and the main benefit, as well) of the modern Compossible Business (Architecture).

Clearly, Decoupled Integration (Architecture) is an enabling layer for the Composable Architecture. To put this in a very simple words (again), integrating via middleware and using API/Event Portal(s) is just must. What kind of "flexibility" would it be, if we would design P2P integrations between 2 building blocks? Probably none...

So, is Event-Driven Architecture answer to all?

Well, not really.

Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) is indeed one of the key Integration Styles providing Decoupled Integration. EDA, in its core, is built to be “decoupled”, but it is primarily executed asynchronously – although we are more and more talking about (near) real time integration as well[3] (I do strongly recommend this article in Solace from Bruno Baloi - pls note, when we talk about Solace PubSub+, we are also talking about SAP Integration Suite, advanced event mesh)

Fully synchronous integration, like REST or OData APIs can also be built through integration middleware (i.e. SAP Integration Suite incl. API Management) – let’s use Omni-channel integration as an example – where multiple commerce channels through the integration middleware are taking (in both synchronous and asynchronous fashion) orders on the same backend[4][5].

EDA is a key substance of the modern Decoupled Integration (Architecture) and thus of the Compossible Business (Architecture) – but we are not limited to EDA only… We should not abandon other good patterns[6] – as not one size fits all...

Final…

Those are my 2 cents…

Of course, would be glad to hear other thoughts as well…

In my next article(s) I will try to talk more about some practical examples (Events, APIs) and how those are addressing 4 principles of the modern Compossible Business.

Acknowledgment

*) Intro photo by Ryan Quintal on Unsplash

References

[1] The Future of Business Is Composable - Gartner Keynote

[2] Introduction to the ADM (opengroup.org)

[3] Why it's Time to Event Enable your Integration | Solace

[4] Building Integration Architecture for the Omni-cha... - SAP Community

[5] Part 3: Next steps in building the Integration Arc... - SAP Community

[6] Agile EA - from SOA to Interoperability - SAP Community