A Flexible and Scalable Application Landscape with Mendix

A multi-app solution: you might have heard of it, or the term microservices architecture may sound familiar. Both contribute to making your business more agile and responsive to your customers' needs. But what exactly is a multi-app solution? We're here to explain!

Taking a step back

Before we delve into what a multi-app solution is, it's essential to understand how this approach to software development differs from conventional methods. So, let's take a step back and briefly consider other development methodologies.

The classical IT organization

In a typical organization, a business department, such as Sales, wants to develop a new solution. They communicate their requirements to the IT department, which then starts working on the project. A project is initiated, and a large development team is assembled to design and develop the architecture and processes, build the solution, and conduct testing. Once the project is completed, the development team hands over the software to the operations team, which takes care of deploying the solution into production and managing it.

A flexible and scalable application landscape with Mendix - JoelThe total time to deliver a solution to the business is long. The development team is often brought together for a single project, and the developers disband once the project is finished. Consequently, the team accumulates limited knowledge.

This project-focused approach works quite differently from a product-focused approach. In product-focused work, you often see a different architecture being employed – the microservices architecture. In our case, working with Mendix, it's a multi-app solution.

Microservices architecture

A flexible and scalable application landscape with Mendix - Joel 2A microservices architecture stems from a different organization of your IT department. It often involves merging traditional 'dev' (developers) and 'ops' (operators) teams into small units. Each team is responsible for one or more small components of the complete software for your business. They develop and maintain these components and can deploy them live at any time. They are not dependent on other teams or an overarching plan but have their own schedule.

By organizing the IT department in this way, your application landscape also needs to be arranged differently. This is where the microservices architecture comes in handy.

Benefits of microservices architecture and a multi-app solution

Implementing a microservices architecture or a multi-app solution creates a structure that enables individual deliveries to quickly add value to the organization. The application landscape consists of small, independently operating components that communicate with each other through integrations. Each team is responsible for its components, and the teams are no longer dependent on each other. They can implement new insights faster and respond better to market developments. Because of this speed, you can experiment with new business concepts more quickly, such as increasing your product's revenue. Lastly, with a microservices architecture, you secure knowledge within the teams and are no longer dependent on individuals outside them.

The difference between a microservices architecture and a multi-app solution is very small; they share the same organizational structure. A microservices architecture consists of different types of components: UI (User Interface), application logic, and data storage like files and a database. Combining these components as one package creates an application. Mendix is a low-code application platform designed specifically to accelerate the development of smaller applications throughout their entire lifecycle. They have bundled the components into one application to standardize and automate the dependencies between different component types.

Why is Mendix well-suited for a multi-app solution?

The key is that small apps operate independently and are developed by autonomous teams. Mendix, as a low-code application platform, is highly suitable for realizing a multi-app solution. Mendix supports the complete lifecycle of developed applications, allowing developers to focus on quickly creating the best possible apps.

Why does Emixa choose this method?

Emixa wants to enable its clients to innovate quickly on two fronts. Firstly, scalable and flexible solutions are required. Therefore, we implement a multi-app solution to make our clients' IT landscape flexible and use Mendix to quickly develop applications. We first create a foundational landscape where we can rapidly add more applications. Smart integration APIs make certain functionalities and business logic reusable.

Secondly, client teams are always small. They are responsible for their own applications and communicate directly with the business they support – all to accelerate time-to-market.

Multi-app solution in practice

An example of this is Avans University of Applied Sciences. Avans is making great strides in personalizing its course offerings. Courses are increasingly tailored to the needs of individual students. This requires a significant adjustment in the IT landscape behind the scenes: it needs to become more agile, allowing room for innovation.

Emixa collaborates with Avans' IT department in four Scrum teams, each working on four different applications for different domains within Avans. One team develops a central portal for students, while another team creates an application to bring internship opportunities closer to students. Because these teams are not dependent on others, they can quickly pivot independently of each other, allowing Avans to offer new functionalities to its users more rapidly. Infrastructure and integration requirements are built into an Avans template, making it easier to add new functionalities, and applications are developed faster.

Want to know more?

There are plenty of opportunities to drive forward digital transformation in the tech industry. Would you like to improve the digital state of your organisation? And are you looking for a partner who can help you achieve this goal? In that case, Emixa is the right fit for you. We translate complex issues into simple, user-friendly IT solutions that accelerate your digital transformation and take your business to a higher level. Don’t hesitate to contact us. We would be delighted to meet you!