This blog is about the 'Ask Me Anything: Mendix Multi-Cloud' video, presented by Jan de Vries, Carlos Salinas and Tom de Groot. You can watch the video here.
As we all know, low-code is about developing apps in a simpler, faster, more performant way. The Mendix approach to the cloud is centered around flexibility, reduced complexity, and ease of use, just like low-code, and of, course customer compliance.
Mendix plans for cloud
Currently, Mendix is developing its cloud infrastructure to support the on-prem cloud as a private cloud solution, covering more geographical regions in America and Asia, particularly in emerging economic zones with an emphasis on improving performance and security standards. There are still challenging issues like latency and consumer compliance.
Mendix works with a wide range of external partners on security standards. All of these are compliant with the PCI standard.
Looking to the future
Mendix is working hard on cloud development and iterative improvements. It replaces traditional monitoring with a new approach by using better design and better tools. Mendix uses ElasticSearch to store and process monitoring data and to collect more metrics for a richer monitoring experience. There are also plans in the works to support an automated elastic scaling mechanism. A cloud partnership between SAP and Mendix aims at making things easy for developers on both sides to integrate their solution together. ADP from CLEVR is other solution that allows Mendix developers to monitor their apps. It was specifically developed for the purpose of monitoring.
Cloud API and CI/CD
Mendix is also taking another interesting approach by delivering an API for cloud management that can be used both in a public and a private cloud. That API is still in the R&D stage, but it will also be tailored for testing and cloud pipelines, albeit with a different approach compared to old-school app development. That means there will likely be no unit tests, or at least no conventional unit tests, and customers will be able to download and test the API. But there are other solutions for testing and CI/CD that Mendix developers and customers can use, including ACR and ATS tools from CLEVR that were specifically developed with a view to quality control and testing for Mendix apps. These tools are currently available.
Mendix Store and marketplace
The Mendix marketplace will be geared towards cloud resources. There are additional measurement tools currently in development, but the offering will be based on simplicity and flexibility for clients. There are some legal concerns, which Mendix is working to address. The tools we mentioned above (ACR, ATS, and APD) will also be available in the marketplace and offer a simple integration process.
Mendix Cloud and other cloud providers
Usually, customers decide which cloud platform they want to use based on context and other factors. Mendix's approach is to support diversity, so that customers can use other cloud platforms as well.
One of the items on the Mendix cloud roadmap is to guarantee zero downtime. The idea is that there will be no downtime during updates to apps.
Summary
Mendix keeps investing in the cloud, with a focus on simplicity, performance, security, customer compliance, multi-cloud, partnership with SAP, Mendix Store and marketplace integration. As a Mendix developer, I am curious about upcoming cloud developments. For instance, I would like to know if I can host an app in multiple regions using the same static content, or whether an app hosted on different cloud platforms can use resources from the different cloud environments. The future is going to be amazing!
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