In early 2022, on the heels of a near return to normalcy and a reassessment of ecommerce goals Akeneo leaned into the actual meaning of buzz phrases like “omnichannel” and “composable commerce”, highlighting the value of their microservices composition by joining the MACH Alliance.
The Mach Alliance is a group of companies that supports open architecture to build their solutions. By using microservices, members of the Mach Alliance are able to provide highly scalable, modular, and resilient solutions that can be adapted to meet the changing needs of their customers.
But what are microservices? Microservices refers to an architectural style for building software systems that involves breaking down an application into a collection of small and loosely coupled services. These pieces communicate with each other through well-defined interfaces over a network, such as HTTP/REST API’s, messaging systems, or other protocols. Each is designed to perform a necessary business function and is responsible for a specific operation of the application.
Akeneo, a product information management (PIM) and product experience management (PXM) system, is built with a similar connectivity in mind. With open API architecture at its core, Akeneo is designed to integrate with existing systems. Moreover, Akeneo also future proofs your process by connecting with microservices that haven’t even been created yet.
Easy interaction with other solutions stems from the structure of Akeneo but is also aided by several of the PIM’s features.
Just a few of the Akeneo features that support microservices ease of use include:
API Gateway:
The API Gateway is responsible for handling external API requests to the Akeneo PIM system. It provides a single entry point for all API requests, handles authentication and authorization, and routes requests to the appropriate microservices.
Product Manager:
Responsible for managing product information in the PIM system, Product Manager provides functionality for creating, updating, and deleting products, as well as managing product attributes, categories, and associations. Functional and organized data is the starting point for communicating product information to microservices you leverage.
Workflow Manager:
The Workflow Manager is responsible for managing workflows in the PIM system. It provides functionality for defining workflows, assigning tasks to users, and tracking workflow progress.
But What is the Value of Using Microservices?
Scalability:
Microservices architecture enables you to scale individual services independently of each other, which can help you achieve better performance and scalability for your application. Growth is a good thing and a primary goal for most businesses and composable digital solutions mean you can future-proof your operations.
Agility:
Microservices architecture allows you to make changes to individual services without affecting the rest of the application. This makes it easier to update and maintain your software, and to respond quickly to changing business needs.
Resilience:
As failures in one service will not affect the entire system, a microservices approach can help you build more resilient applications. This is because each service is designed to be independent and fault-tolerant.
Modularity:
Microservices architecture encourages modularity, which can make your codebase more organized and easier to understand. This can also make it easier to test and maintain your code.
Technology diversity:
Use different technologies and programming languages for different services, which can help you choose the best technology for each task. Instead of committing to a solution with area weaknesses, opt to compose your tech stack with the best options for your individualized needs. This can also help you avoid vendor lock-in and keep your technology stack up to date.
Team autonomy:
Microservices architecture allows different teams to work on different services independently, which can help you achieve better team autonomy, agility, and overall efficiency.
Microservices work together to provide a complete tech stack that is scalable, flexible, and customizable. By using open API architecture, Akeneo is able to provide a PIM solution that works easily with microservices to create an overall modular and adaptable solution that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of each customer.
Sitation is an Akeneo Gold Partner with numerous implementation and optimization success stories. Contact Us to learn more about how Akeneo may be the microservice solution you need.
