This blog is about the 'Reduce Risk and Cost With a Defined Cloud Deployment Approach' video, presented by Maarten Smeets from Mendix. You can watch the video here.
Ten years ago, CLEVR started using the Mendix platform. In those days, we had several customers running their Mendix application on-premises.
In an on-premises Linux environment, some technical skills were needed for Mendix runtime installation and configuration. For implementing new deployments, stopping, starting and even looking at log files required the Linux command line.
Over the past 12 years, we’ve seen many customers move to the Mendix cloud: at least 80% of our customers are running now in the Mendix cloud. The Mendix cloud offers a graphical interface in which stopping, starting and deploying are all at the click of a button. Installation of components such as a database or web server are handled by Mendix.
Recently, we’ve been getting more questions from customers about the option to run the Mendix runtime in their private cloud. The public cloud is not an option for all companies due to AVG (GDPR) or other security policies. Fortunately, there are more and more options for the private cloud nowadays. As a customer, if you’d rather continue to work on-premises, that's not only possible but is also getting easier. Mendix promises the same low-code platform experience via all three options. At the Mendix World event, it was time for us to dive into all the possibilities. We’ll discuss the different options further in this blog post.
When we look at the current cloud landscape, there are several providers: Amazon (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google cloud, IBM cloud, and Alibaba cloud. The largest provider at the moment is Amazon (AWS), whose revenue increased by 400% between 2015 and 2020. The second largest provider is Microsoft Azure.
Forrester conducted research about cloud usage via a survey. The main findings were as follows: 86% of participants do not believe in only one cloud solution but rather in multi-cloud; 32% use private cloud; and 23% still use on-premises in combination with public cloud. Revenue for private cloud is growing faster than for public cloud. Plus, the revenue for cloud software on-premises is growing faster. In 2015, everybody was talking about “lift & shift”. In 2020, this increases your risks and costs, in most cases. A successful cloud strategy is based on cloud native. Mendix was born in the cloud (cloud native principles). The future is a multi and hybrid cloud.
Mendix is offering the following deployment options:
The MX (public) Cloud gives the fastest time value. Mendix handles all the technical stuff and delivers fully managed cloud operations with alerting, high availability, and backups. The MX Cloud Dedicated makes it possible to have a dedicated version of the Mendix Cloud running on the AWS account of the customer. This consists of a full Mendix Cloud region setup, running within two availability zones of AWS, connected to the private (corporate) network of the customer. It’s still fully managed and operated by Mendix. The user experience and architecture are identical to MX (public) Cloud.
Mendix for Private Cloud is based on the Kubernetes native operator architecture. The Mendix Operator is responsible for deployment, provisioning, backup/recovery, scaling, and building of the Mendix application. As an SAP developer, you want to deploy your Mendix app on the SAP Cloud Platform. With the SAP Cloud Platform RAD by Mendix, you get the SAP Fiori UX for your Mendix applications. With the same user experience, it’s possible to deploy to the SAP Cloud Ecosystem with one click, while the Mendix Appstore offers integrated possibilities for pre-built SAP connectors. At the moment, the Mendix for Private Cloud option is limited to Azure, AWS, and Openshift. This is probably sufficient for most Virtual Private Cloud solutions, but for customers running Private Cloud on-premises, which don’t use Azure Stack or AWS Outposts, it could still be a challenge. At CLEVR, we’re using the Nutanix HCI as a Private Cloud, so unfortunately we can’t use Mendix for Private Cloud. Hopefully, we’ll see more Private Cloud solutions added to the list in the near future.
In conclusion, multi and hybrid cloud is the future. Mendix, being cloud native, already offers several solutions with the same experience as in the Mendix Cloud. Mendix for Private Cloud is an interesting new option, although still limited as a solution for Private Cloud on-premises. In short, Mendix delivers a great low-code experience for many different cloud solutions.
If you’d like to know more about Mendix cloud opportunities and want to get started, we recommend these resources:
https://www.mendix.com/evaluation-guide/app-capabilities/mendix-cloud-overview
https://www.mendix.com/evaluation-guide/app-capabilities/mendix-for-private-cloud
https://www.mendixworld.com/session/know-your-options-with-mendix-multi-cloud-deployment/
https://www.mendixworld.com/session/demo-how-to-configure-deploy-in-mendix-private-cloud/
https://www.mendixworld.com/session/reduce-risk-and-cost-with-a-defined-cloud-deployment-approach/
https://gettingstarted.mendixcloud.com/link/path/101/Mendix-for-Private-Cloud
https://docs.mendix.com/developerportal/deploy/sap-cloud-platform
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