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ERP-market in transition: from hype to sustainable architecture

The ERP market has been undergoing significant change in recent years. A clear shift is visible from legacy systems to cloud-based solutions.

From monolithic to composable

Where organizations previously opted for monolithic, all-in-one ERP systems, the market has recently — under the influence of the MACH Alliance (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) — embraced a composable architecture. However, the promise of maximum flexibility and loosely coupled modules often proves to be:

  • ● operationally complex,
  • ● costly to integrate,
  • ● vulnerable in terms of security and data consistency.
  • Many MACH advocates are now shifting back toward more integrated solutions.

    The rise of cloud-native PaaS platforms

    Modern ERP vendors are taking a more balanced approach: building complete ERP solutions on top of a cloud-native Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), where modularity, extensibility, and scalability are embedded in the platform itself.

    Both the development environment and runtime operate entirely on this platform, making scalability, extensibility, and integration no longer external considerations, but inherent, native capabilities of the platform.

    Modular and manageable

    These modern ERP solutions enable organizations to build their landscape modularly and iteratively, without compromising:

  • ● cohesion,
  • ● performance,
  • ● security.
  • The shift thus moves from heavily integrated, hard-to-adapt systems, through a phase of composable hype, toward a more balanced approach: modular ERP solutions built on a cloud-native PaaS — flexible, yet operating within a manageable and secure environment.

    Composability within a shared foundation

    Organizations benefit from the best of both worlds: Composability — the combination of modularity (standalone modules) and composability (the ability to dynamically combine them) — and scalability that goes beyond technical elasticity.

    All modules, extensions, and industry-specific solutions (verticals) are developed and run on the same cloud-native PaaS platform, benefiting from:

  • ● shared infrastructure,
  • ● centralized database services,
  • ● unified management layers.
  • Integration, data consistency, security, and access control are not afterthoughts, but built into the platform from the ground up.

    Organizational scalability as a core capability

    The result is a form of organizational scalability that goes far beyond the classical definition. Organizations can uniformly add new modules, processes, or even entire business units — whether generic functionality or industry-specific extensions — without triggering:

  • ● redesign,
  • ● custom development,
  • ● complex reintegration.
  • Extensibility thus becomes a native property of the platform, not a separate IT project.

    Examples of ERP solutions built on a cloud-native PaaS platform

  • NetSuite – built on the SuiteCloud®-platform
  • Acumatica – built on the xRP platform
  • DELMIAWorks – built on the Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform
  • Rootstock Software – built on the Salesforce Lightning platform
  • Ramco Systems – built on the VirtualWorks® platform
  • Plex (Rockwell Automation) – built on the Smart Manufacturing platform
  • SAP S/4HANA – built on the SAP BTP platform
  • Conclusion

    The ERP market is moving toward a mature equilibrium: flexibility without fragmentation, modularity without chaos. Cloud-native PaaS platforms form the foundation for a future-proof ERP landscape — where extensibility, integration, and scalability are no longer isolated ambitions, but fundamental properties of the platform.