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Top 2024 resources on monolithic

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  • Futureproof eCommerce: What Does it Mean & Why it Matters - With every year, new trend reports aim to predict the future for the years to come. Within the world of eCommerce, we've seen drastic shifts in customer behavior and expectations imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, these proved to accelerate the future predictions rather than depart from expectations. While some brands were able to adapt quickly, many struggled to keep up and eCommerce managers were left wondering first, how to catch up and second, how to ensure their brands wouldn’t fall behind in the future. This post will walk through the importance of 'futureproofing' your eCommerce solution and why you prioritize it now versus in the future. What is Futureproofing? Simply put, futureproofing is ensuring your eCommerce solution will continue to deliver value for your brand into the future. That's not to say that a single solution will last forever. Instead, it ensures that your eCommerce solution will continue to keep up with your needs as they change. For example, the ability to easily support new experiences like mobile-self checkout or, seamless integrate new technology. For a breakdown of crucial commerce trends, check out our Gartner's Predicts report post. Why Legacy Monolithic Solution Is Vulnerable Monolithic eCommerce software (or, legacy all-in-one solutions) by design provide interlinked functionality from a single package. Because each commerce function is 'tightly-coupled,' a monolith solution requires extensive work to customize or add new functionality. To learn more about monolithic solutions and how they compare to more modern headless solutions, check out our post here.  Most monolithic solutions have long release cycles; they will need several months to add a feature like curbside pick-up or mobile self-checkout, two experiences that gained massive importance during the pandemic. Adding new experiences to a monolith is constrained by the very nature of its architecture. Since each component is 'tightly-coupled,' they are not designed to work with new features easily. Any customizations or additions mean that long hours of implementation and testing are required to ensure a new experience works with the entirety of the rest of the existing monolith. Due to these long release cycles and the lack of control over them, brands running a monolithic eCommerce solution had no possibility of quickly spinning up these experiences, losing customers to competitors that were on future proofed solutions that allowed the rapid addition of these new experiences. Gartner sums it up well, "Monolithic digital commerce applications cannot support the agility and flexibility needed to support fast-moving digital business. Organizations will need to move toward composable commerce to keep up with the pace of change in customer demand."   Want to See How Elastic Path Commerce Cloud is Future Proof? Launch and optimize innovative experiences fast, with a modern, headless, SaaS, API-first, & microservices-based commerce platform. See the Future of eCommerce What is Composable Commerce? Is it the Solution? In a nutshell, Composable Commerce is an approach to digital commerce that enables your brand to create a 'best-for-me' solution comprised of third-party vendors and core commerce capabilities that fit your brand's unique needs. It offers a variety of benefits over a traditional monolithic solution, including and not limited to: Speed to market Speed to optimize/ change as needed Flexibility to tailor a solution with third-party features to fit your brand Unmatched scalability with could-native architecture Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Business-centric solution to manage multiple customer touchpoints across several channels (B2B, B2C, B2B2C, etc.). Microservices based features are designed to function independently, making them easy to add, remove, or swap as the market and your brand’s goals evolve To learn more about Composable Commerce, check out our guide here. A Composable Commerce approach is well equipped to seamlessly add functionality on the fly as your business goals and customer habits evolve. Take mobile touchpoints as an example; with Millennials making up a large percentage of buyers in today's market, it is as vital as ever to have a state-of-the-art mobile commerce experience to fit their expectations. Failing to add a mobile-self checkout or having an app or mobile site that is slow to load can lead to lost conversions and, ultimately, revenue. See our post to learn more about page load speeds and how they impact your bottom line. A composable approach isn't only about keeping up with the Joneses. It also ensures that you have the flexibility to test and innovate with third-party solutions for a particular functionality to ensure that you create a solution that works best for your brand's needs. For example, experimenting with adding a voice-enabled chat bot or AR showrooms to test if they improve your conversion rates. Compared with the underwhelming, restricted 'what you see is what you get' reality of a monolith solution, a composable approach allows continuous improvement and innovation. Free from coming up with workarounds to a monolithic solution, your eCommerce team can focus on quickly delivering customer experiences that help your brand stand out amongst the competition. What About 5 Years Into The Future? If you’ve been in digital commerce for a while, you’re probably experienced in wholescale re-platforming. At this point, you are likely wondering if there is a way to escape the never-ending cycle of re-platforming. It is a costly journey that your brand may have undertaken multiple times already. The reality is, with a SaaS-based, Composable Commerce solution, a full-scale re-platforming is not a concern in the next 5 years. While no solution will last forever, with a Composable Commerce solution, your brand will be in the best possible position to evolve with the rapidly changing world of eCommerce. You will never have to wait for a new 'release' of a monolithic solution to provide a consistent multi-experience offering to your customers. Ready for the future? Talk to us today to see how Elastic Path can help your brand solve your eCommerce needs today & tomorrow.
    Topics: means, future, futureproof, ecommerce, commerce, experiences, brands, matters, composable, solutions, monolithic, solution, brand.
  • Microservices: to implement or not to implement? That is the question. - While both microservice and monolithic architectures have their own benefits, we’re seeing companies like Uber, Walmart, Netflix and Amazon adopt microservices frameworks to create operational efficiencies and reduce risk while continuing to evolve.
    Topics: organization, digital, implement, architecture, advisory, business, work, monolithic, best, applications, question, microservices.
  • - Intense competition is driving rapid technological innovation in ecommerce. More and more brands are turning to cutting-edge tech to help…
    Topics: layer, brands, ecommerce, headless, enterprises, frontend, commerce, works, merchants, backend, monolithic, enterprise, customer.
  • eCommerce Microservices Explained: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - This post was originally published on October 21, 2018 and has been updated for accuracy and relevance to the current market. In today’s world, a one-size-fits-all commerce approach won’t get the job done. It is crucial that brands within eCommerce consistently evolve with today’s market demands and the needs of customers. One of the best ways to do this? eCommerce microservices. eCommerce microservices allow you to meet customer expectations in a fast and flexible manner, so you can always stay up-to-date with eCommerce best practices and new technologies.  But are you aware of all there is to know about eCommerce microservices? Let’s break down the good, the bad, and the ugly truth about microservices in eCommerce that brands like yours should know. What Are eCommerce Microservices? Microservices are small services that are loosely coupled, independently deployed, and organized around business capabilities that enable the rapid, frequent, and reliable delivery of large complex applications.  Though they were established a decade ago, microservices are still new to many commerce practitioners. While many developers are adapting to and experimenting with microservices for eCommerce, others have continued to shy away because of the perceived complexity and risk. That’s likely to change in future years, as Composable Commerce makes it easier to work in microservices architecture. As you decide whether an ecommerce microservices architecture is right for you, here’s what to consider: Need help evaluating eCommerce Solutions? Connect with an Elastic Path expert to answer all of your questions, set up a demo, access a free trial, or discuss pricing options. Get in Touch The Good: Benefits of eCommerce Microservices Microservices are known for unparalleled flexibility and modularity. Standing up a new customer experience and adding additional customer experiences can be done fast with microservices technology.  Microservices are fully independent: Separate platforms, deployments, and data storage capabilities exist separately from each other. If a developer needs to make a new microservice and works in Javascript, he or she can make the microservice in Javascript. They don’t need to learn a new language in order to keep growing the platform. This way, any new application can be built quickly and has a reduced time-to-market. This is the complete opposite of a full-stack monolithic suite, in which the most functionality lives in a single service that is tested, deployed, and scaled as a single unit. To get a platform working requires integration phases, quality assurance, and a shared language. Expanding the monolithic suite to include other touchpoints and devices requires a substantial customization, making it cost-prohibitive to explore new ideas.   The Bad: Common eCommerce Microservices Challenges When companies are moving from a monolithic to a microservices eCommerce solution, challenges do arise. After all, having a monolithic pattern means having infrastructure, licenses, and organizational structure built around a monolithic technology. The possible challenges of a full-on replatform of a solution that was not built from the ground up with APIs and microservices include: Laying off or retraining workers Dealing with duplicative data and connections Losing control of your database Adjusting your cross-functional organizational capabilities and communication These challenges don’t override the benefits of an eCommerce microservices architecture. Choosing an API-first, microservices-based commerce solution such as Elastic Path ensures that you have support as you incrementally replace your monolithic system and retrain your team. The Ugly: The Downside of Adopting eCommerce Microservices Without Support The biggest downside of microservices is the complexity that the mini-services introduce into your team’s developer architecture. When eCommerce microservices first came onto the scene, developers found that they were managing multiple microservices at once. It made for unlinked, challenging work and a process that wasn’t streamlined. Some developers have also encountered challenges tracking their changes and work after adopting a microservices architecture. The autonomy and independence microservices provide your team may also mean that the departure of a single teammate renders some of your architecture impossible to edit. For these reasons, having support when adopting eCommerce microservices is essential. One way Elastic Path Commerce Cloud helps is the inclusion of Packaged Business Capabilities (PBCs).  PBCs and microservices are not the same. PBCs are a grouping of APIs that serve a specific business capability. Microservices are tightly scoped and specific. PBCs are useful because they reduce complexity, enhance clarity, and are developed via business-centric planning. For brands looking for a business-centric eCommerce solution, PBCs are a strong option – and selecting and managing PBCs is made easier with Elastic Path. Should You Adopt an eCommerce Microservices Architecture? An eCommerce microservices architecture will provide the flexible foundation businesses today need to keep up with the ever-evolving commerce landscape. Implementing a microservices architecture benefits both developers and end users with: Abundant opportunities for customization. With the addition of multiple front-ends, you can easily and seamlessly integrate multiple new touchpoints for customers – all while staying connected to the same back-end. Quick and easy implementation. Due to the decentralization of the development process, microservices allow for rapid implementation of changes. This means you can go to market faster with new updates. A leaner technology stack. Since you are only adding what you truly need, you will be able to enjoy a streamlined and more efficient tech stack.  Front-end traffic won’t impact the back-end. In the past, developers have typically had to adjust the entire system to extend services. With microservices, the front-end and back-end are individually scaled, which means high traffic won’t impact what’s happening in the back-end.  Pick and choose the solutions you want. With eCommerce microservices, you can select services and solutions that specialize in your exact needs and enjoy a specialty-tailored approach. Moving Forward with eCommerce Microservices eCommerce microservices may be a major benefit for your business. While the developers of the past have experienced many pain points when adopting microservices for eCommerce, you can learn from their mistakes and adjust your microservices strategy to achieve business success.  At Elastic Path, we want to ensure that the ugly side of microservices never rears its head. Talk to an expert to discover how our team can help you implement a microservices architecture that fits your business needs and objectives.  
    Topics: ugly, explained, business, good, bad, microservices, monolithic, elastic, developers, solution, architecture, commerce, ecommerce, path.