Creating the Virtuous Cycle with Headless, Hybrid, and Low Code

Chapter 2. Composable: Not Just a Buzzword

Composable might be the word of the year, and everyone may claim to have composable solutions, but not everyone understands what it means. As we talk about composability, let’s be careful to avoid silver bullet-itis. It is easy to say that something is composable, and easy to expect it may be true. In reality, this may not be the case. So, what does composable mean?

Composability is a system design principle that is organized around the relationships of different components. Composable systems provide a collection of components that can be assembled in different ways to achieve your goals. These components are the fundamental building blocks used to build your solutions. As we will see, the principles behind the virtuous cycle rely upon a truly composable architecture.

Composable systems are more resilient because it is easier to evaluate and test each component. This makes these systems trustworthy and future-ready. Adopting new technologies can be done by replacing older components with newer ones. This progressive approach allows applications to evolve and extend their functional life far beyond their original build.

This whole concept of composable architecture and component-based design had its start at the same NATO conference on the software crisis in 1968. The software engineers at the time realized that standardization and modular architecture were as important to creating software as they were to creating hardware.

This concept ...