The Architecture of Truth: Can MACH Still Deliver on Its Promise?
A candid conversation between VTEX and MACH Alliance leaders on the future of enterprise architecture and what MACH must become.
The latest episode of The Watson Weekend wasn’t born in a vacuum.
In March, VTEX co-founder Mariano Gomide de Faria lit up LinkedIn with a post announcing that his company would temporarily withdraw its support from the MACH Alliance. In the post—and the accompanying article, The MACH Mirage—he didn’t pull punches: composable commerce, as currently practiced, was riddled with hidden costs, operational complexity, and a disconnect from retailer realities. The MACH movement, he argued, had drifted from its purpose.
The post sparked strong reactions across the ecosystem. Some applauded his candor. Others called it divisive. Either way, it struck a nerve.
Recognizing the need for a more constructive exchange, Rick Watson invited Gomide de Faria and MACH Alliance president Casper Rasmussen onto his Watson Weekend podcast for a direct, unscripted conversation. The result? A rare, respectful dialogue that didn’t shy away from controversy—and delivered sharp insight into what architecture needs to become to truly serve the businesses it underpins.
Simplicity as a Survival Strategy
For Gomide de Faria, the problem is clear: composability, as implemented today, too often prioritizes theoretical elegance over operational practicality. “For me, the word of the moment—and it will be for the next five years—is simplicity,” he said. “Companies that do not achieve that level of simplicity will lose.”
He argued that the MACH movement, while rooted in noble intentions, has created a wave of operational complexity that burdens retailers instead of empowering them. The cost of composability isn’t just technical, it’s organizational. “What appears cost-effective in initial evaluations reveals itself as a financial black hole,” he wrote in his article. That theme echoed throughout the discussion.
From Architecture to Accountability
Rasmussen for his part didn’t disagree with the symptoms, only with the idea that MACH itself was the problem. For him, the issue lies in how companies interpret and implement architectural principles without aligning them to real business outcomes. “The more we can orient teams and leaders around impact and outcome, the more your architecture will become [customer- and business-oriented],” he said.
Gomide de Faria backed that up with an anecdote: a retailer came to VTEX saying they wanted to turn off VTEX search to test a new external search solution— and then asked for a 30% discount on their platform, because switching would require 12 people to manage the new system. Search represents about 3% of the VTEX platform costs, so for Gomide de Faria, there’s a significant disconnect there.
“That’s a lot of money,” Gomide de Faria said. “That’s why composability needs to come with sales or profitability commitments.”
Operational costs, team structures and management, and outcomes are all connected. For Rasmussen and the MACH Alliance, it’s not about the number of vendors or purity of stack. It’s accountability: shared between business and tech leaders, and embedded into contracts, team structures, and funding models.
“No one in an org diagram is going to solve all of the business problems that exist,” said Rasmussen. “It has to be joined up. It has to be driven through mutual accountability.”
Rethinking the Role of System Integrators
One of the most compelling parts of the episode came as the conversation turned to system integrators and how their role is changing.
Rasmussen described a coming shift: “We’re starting to get to a place where we actually operate in faith of our covenant,” he said. “There’s skin in the game. There are performance components. There are outcome-based agreements in between us.”
Gomide de Faria took it a step further, predicting that retailers will rely less on large in-house teams and more on strategic partners— some human, many digital. “A $3 billion brand operated by 50 people, it can happen,” he said. The agentic enterprise, he argued, isn’t a fantasy, it’s already emerging.
What MACH Must Become
At the heart of the conversation was the future of the MACH Alliance itself. Both guests agreed: MACH principles—microservices, API-first, cloud-native, headless—are no longer a differentiator. They’re table stakes.
“The foundations were a differentiation,” said Gomide de Faria. “Right now, the foundations are the new standard. So what’s going to be the differentiation that will move retailers and business sectors forward?”
For Rasmussen, MACH’s next chapter is about enabling, not enforcing. “We’re not over-advocating for best-of-breed. The number of systems is not the measure of good. It has to be fit for purpose,” he said. And more than that, it has to be done together. “If we want the environment to be easier for who we serve collectively… we need to stand together. No one is going to turn the industry upside down again [unless] we emphasize the ‘Alliance’ in MACH Alliance”.
Toward a More Grown-Up Conversation
Despite their differing views, the tone between the two remained respectful, and that, in itself, mattered. Gomide de Faria, who had weathered both praise and backlash after his LinkedIn post, took a moment to acknowledge it. “What the world doesn’t need right now is more polarization,” he said. “I want to recognize Casper and the Alliance overall for the grown-up conversation.”
By the end of the podcast, it was clear this wasn’t about a rebranding of MACH or a rebuttal to criticism. It was something more useful: a reset. A shared acknowledgment that architecture is not an end in itself, and that if MACH is to stay relevant, it must champion simplicity, clarity, and business outcomes above all else.
“Modern architecture is about curating high performance,” Gomide de Faria concluded. “And that’s going to be MACH forever.”
Leigh Bryant
Editorial Director, Composable.com
Leigh Bryant is a seasoned content and brand strategist with over a decade of experience in digital storytelling. Starting in retail before shifting to the technology space, she has spent the past ten years crafting compelling narratives as a writer, editor, and strategist.