Jul 4th, 2025
Navigating the Shift to Composable Architecture in Enterprise Software
It’s easy to write off buzzwords like “Agile”, “SCRUM”, and “continuous development” as just meaningless hype. But these methodologies are popular for a reason and are becoming the de-facto way to write software for enterprise software modernization.
“Composable architecture” is one of those terms, and if you’ve only ever built monolithic software, you might be tempted to dismiss it. But composable architecture gives you greater agility, innovation, cost benefit, and efficiency, which is why many enterprises are shifting to it now.
What is Composable Architecture?
Composable architecture is a software development principle in which systems are built from “composable” (i.e. modular, interchangeable, discreet) parts. Each component is designed to be self-contained and independently deployable, and to encompass these core principles:
- Modularity: Each part encapsulates specific functionality.
- Reusability: Components can be reused across systems without being changed.
- Interoperability: Components communicate using standard APIs.
- Autonomy: Components are self-deploying and self-scaling.
- Flexibility: The system as a whole supports rapid iteration and experimentation.
Key components of Composable Architecture
The key components of composable architecture are Packaged Business Capabilities (PBCs), Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), microservices, and headless architecture.
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Packaged Business Capabilities
PCBs are the modular components that make up composable architecture. They are a key concept in MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) architecture, and Gartner’s Composable Enterprise Vision. Each PCB should map to a real business capability (like “consumer identity” or “catalogue”) and should be self-contained, exposing APIs to communicate with other PCBs.
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Application Programming Interfaces
APIs are the way PCBs communicate. An API simply outlines a standardized set of rules for communicating between two pieces of software. For example, a REST API exposes standard HTTP endpoints that accept GET, POST requests and typically respond with data encoded in JSON.
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Microservices
Microservices are similar to PCBs, but the concept operates at a different level of abstraction and the definition serves a different audience. Where a business exec might call a certain part of an application a “PCB”, a developer might refer to the underlying code as a “microservice.”
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Headless Architecture
In headless architecture, the frontend (“head”) is decoupled from the backend. In a traditional system like WordPress, the front and backends are glued together – one cannot operate without the other. In a headless system, a frontend might be built in React, Vue, Angular, or some other frontend language, while a completely separate CMS might manage the backend via an API.
Benefits of Composable Architecture
Composable architecture increases speed and agility, makes maintenance and updates easier, allows for more efficient scaling, and allows teams to operate autonomously.
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Speed & Agility
Teams can quickly build new features by combining existing parts, meaning a faster time to market. Independent components allow you to replace individual modules without ripping apart the whole system, allowing for easier iteration and improved flexibility.
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Maintenance & Updates
Rather than deploying an update to your entire system, you can update just a discreet module. You will need to have robust automated regression testing in place to ensure that updates to disparate parts don’t break logic in other places. In addition, smaller, composable parts are easier to maintain, meaning less technical debt for your devs.
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Scaling
Services like Amazon AWS provide composable pieces of business logic that can be chained together and then managed independently through a simple UI. Scaling each part of the system can be done independently and only as needed (and often, handled automatically by AWS.)
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Team Autonomy
Teams can be responsible for managing independent parts of the system, working in parallel to build and maintain their respective pieces, while staying in communication about the system as a whole. This means faster iteration, and reduces cross-team dependencies and deployment friction.
Key Drivers for Enterprise Adoption
As digital transformation and customer expectations accelerate, enterprise businesses are hurrying to adopt composable architecture practices. Many teams have discovered a need for greater agility and faster time to market, while others are driven by a desire for reusable components that can be deployed across their systems.
Adopting composable architecture also allows businesses to avoid vendor lock-in, and to set up data flow between services that will support easier implementation of analytics, AI, ML, and other tools becoming prevalent in the modern landscape.
Common Challenges in Composable Architecture and Strategic Solutions
Here are a few of the most frequently experienced pitfalls of implementing composable architecture, and how your business can prepare for and navigate them.
Challenge: Complex Integration
With many services to manage, integration becomes complex and difficult to manage.
Solution: Standardize communication between components (for example, using REST, GraphQL, other standard APIs.) Consider an API gateway like Amazon API Gateway or Kong to manage interoperability. Use event-driven architecture to loosely couple components.
Challenge: Security
Many services mean many entry points into the system, which increases attack surface and exposes many opportunities for security breaches.
Solution: Implement centralized identity and access management using something like AWS IAM, 0Auth, or Okta. Use zero-trust principles and regularly audit APIs to enforce role-based access control.
Challenge: Resistance
Your teams may resist change, particularly if they are used to a monolithic or all-in-one platform.
Solution: Start small. Try out the change with a pilot team and then turn that team into evangelists for the new approach. Align the changes with the value they will bring. Explain clearly why this will benefit not just the business, but devs too.
Key Steps to Shift to Composable Architecture in Enterprise Software
Making the shift to composable architecture requires long-term strategy – it can’t be done all at once. Fortunately, with some up-front planning, you can execute the migration with minimal pain.
Conclusion
If your teams are feeling the need for composable architecture, but you’re unsure where or how to begin, then an experienced software product development partner can guide you through the process. At Telliant, we provide tailored software solutions that can help you not only strategize, design, and implement your shift to microservices, but also maintain, and scale your new system.
Contact us today to find out how our experienced team can help you.
