Acquia has announced that its Digital Experience Platform (DXP) is embracing composability, sparking a conversation about the “Composable Enterprise.” But what exactly is a Composable Enterprise, and why does it matter for businesses today?
In a world of constant change, the role of the CIO remains the same: to make long-term decisions in a landscape defined by short-term disruptions. While the tools and technology evolve, the need to provide value to customers is a constant. So how can we harness this continuous change?
Let’s explore the key trends and challenges that shape this evolving environment.
Key Trends Driving Composability
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Data: The way we collect and use data is increasingly shaped by consumer preferences and privacy regulations. As third-party cookies disappear, businesses must find new ways to provide value using the data customers entrust to them.
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Content: Marketers need more—and more personalised—content than ever before. The challenge is making it easier for content creators to manage, distribute, and publish across channels without heavy technical involvement.
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Coverage: Content delivery is becoming more complex, spanning devices, languages, and highly targeted messaging. The cost of maintaining these channels must decrease to keep up with the growing demand.
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Risk: From security to compliance and brand reputation, the risk landscape is expanding. Businesses need to manage this while avoiding technical and design debt that can drain resources needed for innovation.
Given these trends, how can companies best prepare?
Embracing the Composable Enterprise
The answer lies in flexibility and adaptability. Gartner defines a Composable Enterprise as one that can innovate and adapt to changing business needs by assembling and combining Packaged Business Capabilities (PBCs). Think of these as the building blocks of a business—a collection of best-in-class tools, systems, and services that work together seamlessly.
Imagine building your digital experience platform like a Lego structure. Each “block” is a specialised tool—whether for customer data, content delivery, or commerce. These blocks communicate through APIs and microservices, allowing you to swap them in and out as needed without tearing down the entire system. This modular approach gives you the freedom to evolve your platform one piece at a time.
Decomposing Legacy Systems
One of the biggest benefits of a composable approach is the ability to evolve existing systems without a complete overhaul. Have an outdated ecommerce system or a legacy product database across multiple markets? No problem. With a composable enterprise, you can phase out old systems gradually, replacing outdated components with newer, more efficient ones.
For example, you can bolt on a new product recommendation engine to enhance your ecommerce offering while letting your legacy system continue to manage other tasks. This gradual transition reduces disruption and risk while enabling you to innovate.
Key Building Blocks of a Composable Enterprise
Here’s a closer look at some of the essential components that make up a composable enterprise:
Customer Data Platforms (CDPs): A CDP creates a unified view of your customer data, collecting information from various sources and ensuring compliance with privacy regulations. CDPs democratise data, allowing sales, marketing, and customer service teams to access insights that enhance customer experiences.
Composable Cloud: Modern enterprises need fast, low-risk ways to create branded, compliant web applications. The composable cloud empowers marketing teams to manage multiple sites, run experiments, and update content without relying on development teams, all while maintaining governance and security.
Composable Commerce: Say goodbye to monolithic ecommerce platforms. Today’s API-driven commerce tools allow businesses to provide seamless shopping experiences across multiple channels. Whether you need a product catalogue in one market or a custom storefront in another, composable commerce makes it possible.
Personalisation and Marketing Automation: With your CDP in place and content at your fingertips, personalization becomes more powerful. Machine learning helps predict when and where consumers are most likely to engage, allowing marketers to deliver the right message at the right time.
Composable PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service): Scalable cloud hosting is fundamental to any composable enterprise. These solutions allow businesses to expand and adapt while reducing maintenance overhead. Whether managing multiple sites or shifting from mid-market to enterprise, a composable PaaS gives you the flexibility to grow.
How to Gain Your Composure
At Coherence Digital, we believe in building platforms that scale to meet these ambitions. With Drupal’s strong reputation for security and flexibility, and Acquia’s additional services, the heart of a fully functional composable enterprise is within reach.
The challenge for today’s businesses is to move away from bulky, monolithic systems that introduce technical debt. Instead, we need to adopt the composable mindset—breaking systems into manageable, flexible components that can evolve over time.
In a world where consumer expectations, web standards, and business needs are in constant flux, composability offers a sustainable way forward. It’s about creating a digital ecosystem that adapts with your business, enabling you to innovate and grow without being bogged down by outdated infrastructure.
Composable enterprises are the future. Are you ready to break things apart so you can put them back together better than before?
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