The word “Mach” is often correlated with speed. “Mach 5,” for example, is the term used to differentiate between supersonic speed and hypersonic speed—below Mach 5 is supersonic, above Mach 5 is hypersonic.
In this case MACH—which stands for Microservices based, API-first, Cloud-native SaaS and Headless—describes types of technology or a technological architecture that is composable, scalable, swap-able, adaptable and flexible.
The MACH Alliance is an organization of diverse, MACH certified companies established to uphold the virtues of MACH with a mission to “future proof enterprise technology and propel current and future digital experiences.”
Members of the MACH Alliance are on the cutting edge, accelerating quickly, and breaking barriers (but not the sound barrier). And, as MACH says, “…customer expectations are disrupting every market at MACH speed. Acting slowly is no longer a viable option.”
What is a MACH Certification
Today, we’re excited to officially announce Iterable’s MACH certification—and not just because Forrester called the MACH Alliance “the coolest tech club in town.” There’s a list of criteria that an ISV (MACH Tech Vendors) must meet before even being considered for certification. The company:
- Product(s) offering/portfolio needs to be 100% MACH compliant
- Has at least three different microservices that each have their own domain
- Has live projects with at least 3 other MACH Vendor member companies
- Has 15 or more customers, each generating more than $100M in annual revenue must be using MACH compliant product(s)
- Has an annual revenue of $10million or more from product licenses AND/OR a headcount of 50 or over
MACH certified companies—members of the MACH alliance—are passionate about open tech ecosystems, knowledge sharing, and finding opportunities to collaborate. “The MACH Alliance is the only organization helping companies take advantage of the most innovative and flexible enterprise technologies available.”
How Iterable Aligns with MACH Values
Looking at the lengthy list of criteria for technology to be considered “MACH” and the mission of the MACH Alliance, we noticed immediate overlaps with Iterable’s initiatives. We established four tenets of technology—our north stars—that we keep top-of-mind as we build out our platform, interact with customers, and develop an ecosystem of technology partners:
- AI-Powered: AI is built directly into our platform. With our best-in-class AI Suite, marketers can automate, optimize, and create individualized marketing communications.
- Open and Flexible: Every layer of our platform is built open so you can easily move information in and out of the system, connect Iterable with the rest of your tech stack, and customize the stack architecture.
- Easy to Use: Iterable’s intuitive user-interface gives marketers the ability to create without relying on developers or engineers.
- Built for Data: Iterable is capable of ingesting data from anywhere—in real time. Our platform is designed to consume, unify, activate and utilize the entirety of your multi-source technology stack data.
We are hyper-focused on empowering marketers. With AI, flexibility, ease-of-use, and a structure built for data, Iterable aims to create autonomous marketing teams that have every tool needed at their disposal. We want to champion and encourage marketers to adopt this kind of technology to become marketers of the future. What better way to do this than apply to become MACH certified?
What This Means for Customers
MACH certified companies aim to put the customer (enterprise businesses)—not the vendor—first. They are driven by transparency and aim to ensure the tech brands that join the MACH Alliance are “helping support agile, nimble businesses ready to take advantage of the latest innovations as they emerge.”
Basically, the MACH Alliance ensures that enterprise businesses have all of the information they need to make informed decisions that help set up their martech stacks for success in the future. They do this by:
- Sharing technical knowledge about MACH
- Creating and sharing best practices that show organizations how to transition to a MACH architecture
- Listing and explaining selection criteria for enterprises
- Publishing technical documentation
- Developing and hosting MACH Alliance events
Benefits of Working with a MACH-Certified Vendor
As Russ Howe, VP Sales and GM EMEA at Iterable, wrote in How the Martech Landscape is Evolving in 2024, “Legacy systems weren’t designed to be plug-and-play like modern stacks, but now platforms can integrate seamlessly together in no time at all. Flexibility is the name of the game for the future of martech.”
MACH is about looking forward and putting marketers in the driver’s seat. Therefore, the benefits of working with MACH-certified vendors include:
- MACH tools easily integrate into tech stacks, allowing enterprises to evolve their stacks overtime, without a large replatforming effort.
- Working with MACH solutions gives enterprises the opportunity to roll out customer experiences ahead of competition.
- MACH allows enterprises to quickly respond to changing customer and market needs, and to innovate easily at a lower cost.
- The speed, scale, and performance that MACH technologies offer hint at a future where modular design will be one of the common enterprise architecture patterns.
“Iterable has been a Cloud-native, API-first, Microservices-based architecture from day one. We were MACH-compliant before we even knew what MACH-compliance was!” said Thomas Kim, Chief Architect at Iterable. “Our alignment with MACH principles and ideals reflects our belief that marketers are best served through orchestration that works with the entire ecosystem. Best-in-class interoperability has been one of Iterable’s superpowers from the beginning. This certification validates our dedication to providing our customers with a flexible, composable, and scalable platform that empowers them to create individualized, cross-channel experiences at scale.”
A MACH Made in Heaven
Like Russ Howe said, “Composability also takes the pain out of the marketer’s decision-making process. With a stack that’s easily adaptable, you can access a multitude of world-class technologies without the stress of worrying whether you’ve selected the perfect solution.”
We’re honored to have received MACH certification and be listed amongst like-minded tech companies who strive for transparency, efficiency, and excellence.