THE

MENDIX APP PLATFORM

W H I T E PA P E R

MENDIX APP PLATFORM

Introduction
We are in the midst of a profound technological
shift in which software is disrupting virtually
every industry. Gartner refers to this shift as the
Nexus of Forces. Technology innovations in
social, mobile, cloud and information computing
are converging into a mutually reinforcing
and interdependent force, fueled by massive
consumer adoption of innovative apps and
services.
Mendix is the leader in this emerging market for
enterprise app Platform as a Service.
This whitepaper provides an introduction to the
Mendix App Platform architecture and explains
how Mendix uniquely enables business and IT to
collaborate in a single model-driven environment.
This whitepaper is targeted at business analysts,
solution architects and developers who wish to
obtain a thorough understanding of the Mendix
platform.

As a consequence, organizations are

fundamentally transforming how they operate,
interact with customers and go to market. The
challenge for enterprise IT teams is to keep
up with the accelerating pace of change to
effectively support the business to deliver the
ultimate customer experience and stay ahead of
competition.

In the digital enterprise era, every company is

becoming a software company. This requires
a radically different approach to IT. A new style
of applications that are focused on engaging
customers, empowering employees and
improving business operations is emerging.

In contrast to large transactional backbones like

ERP, software applications that power the digital
enterprise are rapidly built, seamlessly deployed
and easily changed in response to evolving needs.
Close collaboration between business and IT to
design apps that are actually fit for purpose is
critical.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 1
The App Delivery Challenge 3
Think in Pace Layers 3
Embrace Agile 4
Involve the Business 4
Addressing the Challenge 4
Mendix Architecture Vision 5
Business & IT Collaboration 5
Model-Driven Development 5
The App Delivery Cycle 6
Cloud 7
Openness 7
The Mendix App Platform 8
Launchpad 9
Dev Center 9
MxID 18
Cloud Portal 18
App Store 23
Runtime Services - Model Execution 26
Deployment Architecture 29
The App Delivery Cycle 31
Non-Functional Platform Characteristics 32
Multi-tenancy 32
Security 33
Performance 34
Scalability 36
Disaster Recovery & Fallback 36
Deployment 38
Mendix Cloud 38
Mendix On-Premise 38

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The App Delivery
Challenge
While the world around them has changed
dramatically, many enterprise IT teams remain
stuck in the past, bogged down in a quagmire of
legacy systems and one-size-fits-all development
methods. To truly enable todays dynamic
enterprise, IT teams must identify the obstacles
holding them back, resulting in failed projects,
growing backlogs and unhappy business
sponsors.
Think in Pace Layers
A crucial first step towards breaking free from
this mold is to think in pace layers. Gartners
Pace-Layered Application Strategy recognizes
that applications are fundamentally different
based on how theyre used by the business, and
distinguishes three pace-layers. Within these
Systems of Innovation
Systems of Record
Unique Processes
Current Competitive Advantage
Figure 1. Pace-layered application strategy
layers, business applications are segmented
by the problems they address, their rate of
change and the distinctiveness of the business
capabilities they facilitate. Specifically for systems
of differentiation and innovation, it becomes clear
that IT needs to focus on speed of development
and their ability to adapt applications to new
and ever- changing business requirements. It is
also critical to enable greater (and continuous)
business involvement to ensure project success
and achieve the desired business outcomes.
Implementing a Pace-Layered Application Strategy
can help IT teams better categorize and prioritize
their application landscape. Additionally, it may
prompt them to rethink their development
operations, methodologies and tools in place
to support those needs, as they may be quite
different from how the organization is used to
approaching development projects.
Next Competitive Advantage
New Ideas
Better Ideas
Common Ideas
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Embrace Agile
As you move up the pace layers towards Systems
of Innovation, agile development methodologies
become increasingly crucial. With unclear or
fluid requirements and tight timelines, these
applications require rapid, iterative development
cycles, with significant involvement from key
business users.
Agile development methodologies like SCRUM
address these needs by empowering teams to
deliver software in frequent iterations, create
shorter feedback cycles, and evolve and refine
requirements. In other words, agile helps provide
IT with the speed and flexibility needed to enable
business agility in todays fast-paced world.
Enabling rapid delivery of the initial release is just
the first step; prompt and frequent updates to
existing apps are also essential to accommodate
evolving business needs. While SCRUM itself
doesnt necessarily force it, close collaboration
between key stakeholders from the business and
IT is essential.
Figure 2. SCRUM methodology
Involve the Business
History has shown that improving developer
productivity alone has only marginal impact
on the success of IT projects. To deliver better
software fasterparticularly those differentiating
and innovative apps dependent on knowledge
residing in the businessorganizations must
finally make IT/business collaboration a reality.
Previously, the complexity of IT meant that
only highly skilled specialists could work in
complicated programming languages. But faced
with the need for greater speed and simplicity,
companies are now looking to domain experts
to take a leadership role in building apps.
Consequently, app platforms like Mendix leverage
a visual development paradigm that provides a
common language accessible to everyone. This
way, domain experts are empowered to build
apps themselves, as well as easily understand/
review functionality developed by others.
Addressing the Challenge
The Mendix App Platform uniquely addresses
these app delivery challenges. Leading
organizations across the globe use the Mendix
platform to build systems of differentiation and
innovation to engage with customers, empower
employees and improve business operations.
The benefits of Mendix are especially crucial
when building innovative and differentiating
applications for the following reasons:
Collaboration between business and IT is critical
to grasp the unique, innovative and differentiating
processes and ways of working addressed by
these apps.
Accelerating time-to-value through the use of a
high productivity platform and agile approach is
of the essence.
In the next chapters, we will share the vision
behind the Mendix App Platform and highlight
the core capabilities and deployment scenarios.
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Mendix
Architecture Vision
Mendix enables companies to build, integrate,
deploy and maintain web and mobile applications
faster and with better results, effectively reducing
time to value.
The architecture of the Mendix App Platform
is entirely focused on the vision to help our
customers achieve that goal. Our view is that the
next generation app platform should address
the fundamental challenges of app delivery by
focusing on the following key aspects:
Business & IT Collaboration
Too often IT projects are challenged in terms of
cost override, scope creep, long timelines and
misaligned end user expectations. According to
the Standish Group, this is the case for 94% of
large IT projects. Of those that fail altogether,
71% do so because of poor requirements
management.
Our vision is to truly align business and IT and
foster collaboration throughout the complete
lifecycle of the application, from requirements
gathering to development, to deployment and
management of the apps. Collaboration also
calls for a highly iterative approach and instant
feedback mechanisms in every stage of the
lifecycle. Last but not least, we believe that speed
of development or better time to value is critical
to meet business goals.
This philosophy has driven fundamental choices
in our platform architecture, when it comes
to how apps are developed in Mendix and the
extent to which the platform supports the full
application lifecycle.
Model-Driven Development
In order to involve business users in the design
and development of applications to a level
where they can actively participate, we have fully
adopted a visual Model-Driven Development
(MDD) approach. MDD provides an excellent
communication mechanism to align business and
IT stakeholders, thereby ensuring greater quality
and more successful outcomes.
Model-Driven Development has emerged as one
of the leading approaches for enabling rapid,
collaborative development. Because it uses visual
models for defining application logic, process
flows, user interfaces, etc., MDD empowers both
developers and business users to rapidly build
applications, without the need for labor-intensive,
low-level coding. Consequently, its significantly
faster than traditional programming languages
like C# and Java.
The Mendix platform interprets the models in the
runtime, which means that the model is actually
the application. As opposed to approaches where
a visually modeled design would actually generate
code (e.g. Java or .Net), our model interpretation
approach has significant advantages:
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 5
 Application changes can be accommodated
more easily. In addition, since the model The App Delivery Cycle
is the application, Mendix safeguards
compatibility of the application and the
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model. I

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Figure 3.

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Extending models with custom code is The App Delivery Cycle

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controlled more elegantly as the model is

P
N LO
MA Y

aware of the custom code, and includes
it in consistency checks, in contrast to
custom code insertion into generated code.
Mendixs model interpretation approach
solves the fundamental round-trip problem
of code generation, whereby changes in
the model would conflict with custom code
extensions.
Monitoring and analyzing application
behavior in the runtime can be set up more
dynamically and flexibly versus defining
monitor parameters beforehand.
FEE
D B AC K
While Model-Driven Development is a key
architectural choice, the Mendix closed-loop
approach to application delivery is equally
important in aligning business and IT for fruitful
collaboration. The complete app delivery cycle is
natively supported in the Mendix platform:
Design
Mendix supports direct capture of requirements
and allows teams to refine and prioritize user
stories; estimate, plan and monitor SCRUM
sprints; and manage releases.

Considering that a significant portion of the Total Build

Cost of Ownership (TCO) of applications actually
comes after initial go-live, the Mendix approach
to MDD and model interpretation translates to
substantial savings in cost of ownership. In the
context of building systems of differentiation
and innovation that require agility and flexibility
for application changes, it is essential to be
able to realize those benefits beyond the initial
development phase.
Applications are built through visual model-driven
development, which promotes communication,
productivity, quality and short iterations.
Deploy
Mendixs one-click deployment allows for
seamless provisioning and management of apps
in the cloud, including staging to test, acceptance
and production environments.

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Manage
All applications can be managed from a single
dashboard, ensuring availability, security,
performance and scalability.
Iterate
Feedback can be given on design artifacts like UIs,
including end user input on live applications, and
be used in the next change cycle of design-build-
deploy-manage.
Collaborate
The Mendix App Platform comes with a
social collaboration environment and instant
feedback mechanisms. Mendix Buzz enables all
stakeholders to communicate and collaborate
throughout the whole lifecycle of the project.
Cloud
Our focus on shortening time to value for app
delivery doesnt stop at the development stage.
The Mendix App Platform has a cloud-native
architecture optimized for deployment on cloud
infrastructure. As the cloud deployments are
fully standardized and automated, we eliminate
all of the traditional hassle of infrastructure and
deployment management. Mendix provides easy
self-service access for administrators to manage
users, configurations, one-click app deployment
and monitoring dashboards.
Customers benefit from our continuous
innovation to optimize the Mendix App Platform
for cloud deployment. Our relentless pursuit
to optimize the standard configuration and
minimize the platform footprint translates to cost
efficiencies that are passed on to our clients.
Furthermore, we take care of all non-functional
aspects of apps regarding security, performance,
scalability and auditability. This allows our
customers to focus 100% on serving the needs of
the business.
Openness
A core design principle for the Mendix App
Platform is to leverage open standards and to be
open:
Open Standards
Mendix strongly adopts open standards to
support seamless integration of the platform and
applications built on the platform, and to support
exchange of design artifacts. For example, the
application domain model in Mendix is based on
UML; the process and application logic model
is based on BPMN; and the UI model leverages
HTML5 and CSS3. On the platform level, a
variety of standards like OpenID for identity
management, REST and SOAP for web service
integration, SAML for user authentication, etc. are
adopted.
APIs
Application-level APIs. Every application built
using the Mendix platform has powerful API
options and every element of the application
model can be easily provided as part of the API
through REST or SOAP services.
Platform-level APIs. The core platform
functionality is accessible through APIs, which
allows developers to access and integrate Mendix
with other tools and applicationsfor example,
build and deploy APIs to support continuous
integration.
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The Mendix
App Platform
The Mendix App Platform is a completely
integrated application Platform as a Service
(aPaaS) offering to design, build, deploy and
manage enterprise apps.
The Mendix App Platform is offered as public
cloud service through Mendix Cloud, but can be
deployed as private cloud or on premise as well.
The on-premise deployment scenario is described
in the last chapter of this white paper.
Apps
Mendix App Platform
Public Cloud Private Cloud On Premise
Figure 4. Mendix App Platform Deployment Options
The platform is accessible for end users,
developers and administrators through the
Launchpad, giving access to apps as well as the
platform services for development, operations
and administration of apps and app services. The
platform comes with an App Store that features
hundreds of publicly available building blocks to
speed up app development. The App Store can
be configured for private use as well so that apps
and building blocks can be shared across the
customers organization. The platform features
online collaboration amongst users through Buzz,
the social collaboration capabilities. The picture
below gives an overview of the key modules and
services in the Mendix App Platform.
MxID Launchpad App Store
Apps
Runtime Services
Cloud Dev
Portal Deployment Services Center
Figure 5. Mendix App Platform Overview
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 8
Launchpad
The Launchpad is the central place for end users
and developers to access Mendix apps. Through
single sign on (SSO), youre automatically logged
in to all the apps present on your Launchpad.
Moreover, the Launchpad can be customized to
your companys styling preference.
By default, all users on the Mendix App Platform
get access to three apps on their Launchpad:
The Getting Started app, a self-service
online training program that guides users
through a complete, 18-hour curriculum.
The App Store, the marketplace for apps
and application building blocks.
The Dev Center which gives the user
access to the development environment of
the Mendix App Platform.
Figure 6. Mendix Launchpad
Dev Center
Dev Center is a collaborative environment for
design, development and deployment of apps.
This web-based portal comes with online social
collaboration features (Buzz), a notification
service (Notifications) and a directory of active
members in your company who could be invited
for participation in app development projects as
well as for social collaboration.
Projects
Mendix has adopted SCRUM as an agile
development methodology and offers full support
of managing app development projects with
SCRUM tools supported by the platform.
Defining a Project
An app development project in Mendix starts by
defining a project in the platform. The project
owner can manage the setup of the project in
terms of team members and their roles, as well
as the security settings for the project. Social
collaboration on a project level is supported
through Buzz and Notifications.
Create User Stories
Once the project has been created, the team
members can start to define the requirements for
the app and write them down in the form of User
Stories. User Stories break down the scope of
the app into small, well-defined items. Each user
story has its own conversation thread that is also
published in Buzz as a project activity stream.
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 9
The User Stories are tracked throughout the
whole app delivery cycle. Once development
starts, the business analysts and developers
can report user stories to be in progress or
completed. User Stories can be imported from,
and exported to, Excel.
Model-Driven Development
The collection of User Stories forms the product
backlog of the application. The product backlog
is divided into one or more Sprints, representing
a subset of the scope to be developed, tested
and taken into production following an iterative
cycle. Mendix helps to plan and manage Sprints,
for example through a Burn-down chart that
visualizes the progress of the completion of
User Stories against the estimated timeline for
the Sprint. Sprints can be planned in advance
to define the scope of a next release, by taking
requirements from the backlog. User feedback
can be given straight from the application User
Interface, and can be added to the product
backlog for inclusion in a future sprint.
Business Modeler
Model-Driven Development
The Mendix Business Modeler is the multi-user
modeling studio of the Mendix App Platform. The
general purpose of the Mendix Business Modeler
is to provide an integrated, unified modeling
space, where business analysts and IT engineers
can work closely together to model the various
application elements.
Figure 9. Mendix Business
Modeler
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 10
 Figure 7. User Stories

Figure 8. Sprint
Burndown Chart

MENDIX APP PLATFORM 11

Domain Specific Languages Model Editors Description
The Mendix Business Modeler contains various
graphical editors, each designed with a specific Modeling objects, attributes,
validations & data model. The
Domain
model or domain specific language (DSL) in domain modeler is based on
Modeler the Unified Modeling Language
mind. For example, the domain objects or data (UML) standard.
entities, the user interfaces and the application
Modeling rich, responsive UIs,
and process logic can be modeled in dedicated user interaction & complex UI
graphical designers. Mendix adopts and adheres (Mobile)
behavior. Mendix has adopted
HTML5 & CSS3 standards
to relevant open industry standards. Each of the Form Builder & leverages popular open
source frameworks, such as
models is based on an existing industry standard, Bootstrap.
if such exists.
Rules Defining business rules &
system rules.
The Mendix Business Modeler connects and
integrates the various designers so that design Modeling process, business
logic & calculations. The
artifacts can be leveraged in the various models. Microflow microflows are stored in the
Business Process Modeling
For example, simply dragging the object model Notation (BPMN) standard.
into the UI modeler can generate a fully functional
Document Modeling PDF & Word RTF
UI model. Generator documents.

Binding external web services to domain objects Modeling mappings between

Mapping Mendix & external systems /
in Mendix to establish integration takes place files.
by using the mapping functionality to connect
Consume & expose web
elements from the web service to the domain Web services. Mendix supports SOAP
Services & REST based web services.
object. By doing so, the relevant elements from
the web service can be used in the application, in
Modeling security settings for
microflows and on UIs. the app. For more information
on security, please consult
Security the Security for Cloud - and
On Premise Deployment
technical white paper.

Internationalization of user
Internationali- interface based on i18N
zation standard.

The models in Mendix can be

Custom Java extended with Java & JavaScript
Actions code through standard
platform APIs.

Configuring database &

Advanced serversettings for development,
Settings test, acceptance & production
environments.
Figure 11. Data Mapping

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Business-IT Collaboration
The Mendix Business Modeler supports
collaboration between representatives from
the business and developers. By using the
right level of model abstraction, the models
are fully comprehensible by non-technical
participants, while at the same time developers
have all the facilities for realizing the technical
implementation.
Intrinsic Quality & Consistency
The Mendix Business Modeler ensures
the intrinsic quality and consistency of the
applications built with the platform through the
following approach and mechanisms:
Single Modeling Environment
All models in Mendix are managed in a
single environment. Mendix checks the
completeness and consistency of the
entire model. This way, Mendix guarantees
that the model does not contain technical
inconsistencies once deployed. In fact, the
system will not allow deployment of the
model until inconsistencies are resolved.
Pattern Recognition
Mendix performs analyses to detect
patterns that may cause issues for
applications running in production. For
example, incomplete decision trees or the
use of a variable in flow that is not used
elsewhere are detected and warnings are
given prior to publishing the model.
Regression Analysis
The same mechanism is used to perform
regression checks, making it easy to analyze
the impact of changes on the model, such
as where used analysis, highlighting where
commits are performed on data objects and
detection of queries that may compromise
performance.
Figure 12. Microflow with
Business Logic
Figure 13. Consistency
Checks
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The intrinsic quality and consistency checking
mechanisms in Mendix are key contributors to
high-productivity development.
Mendix typically performs 10 20 times more
consistency checks than what compilers
check in traditional programming platforms.
As a result, testing is primarily needed on a
functional level. The advantage is that through
the extensive quality and consistency checking,
non-technical domain experts can develop
robust and sophisticated apps. At the same time,
Mendix offers professional developers enough
possibilities to make their own trade-off to
deviate from the recommendations coming out
of the checks. For example, a warning regarding
performance of a certain query may be ignored
as the developer has the context about the
frequency of this query to be triggered.
Figure 14. Eclipse Integration
Extending the Model with Custom Code
In essence, users are never limited by the reach
of a specific DSL and can always resort to the use
of custom Java functions. Custom Java functions
can be called from within a model and its output
can be directly used. The interface of each action
(equals a Java function) is also defined within the
model. The name, parameters and return values
are all declared in the Mendix Business Modeler.
The modeler will generate templates for each
action.
Whenever the interface changes, the template
will automatically change without losing any of
your custom code. Within this custom code, the
programmer is able to use an extensive API for
the core of the runtime engine. This is a low-
level API enabling, among other things, reflective
programming patterns.
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 14
Sandboxes
For each application development project, Mendix
provides a sandbox environment running in the
cloud. You can choose to run the application in
the sandbox with a single click from the Mendix
Business Modeler. This allows you to explore
ideas, rapidly develop prototypes and instantly
test your application. You can invite other users to
try the app and give feedback. The sandbox goes
asleep after one hour of inactivity and resumes
automatically when you start using the app again.
Once youve completed development, you can
publish your app to a standard environment for
acceptance testing.
Internationalization
Mendix provides out-of-the-box support
for internationalization and translation of
applications built in Mendix, based on the
i18N standard. Mendix supports multibyte
character sets and provides right-to-left (RTL)
support. Different calendars can be used within
applications.
For translation, the Mendix Business Modeler
provides the following tools:
Batch Replace a facility to ensure
consistency of labels in the default language
within the application.
Batch Translate a facility to translate
all labels in the app from source language
to destination language batch-wise, after
having translated the individual labels.
Language Operations a facility to handle
a set of labels in one quick operation e.g.
copy all US English labels to UK English
labels, where after individual labels can be
adjusted.
The advantage of the model-driven development
approach in Mendix is that all system- and
application-level messages are automatically
included for translation. For international rollout
of applications, Mendix supports the use of
multiple languages in parallel for the application
running in production. By default, the app will
be presented to the user in the language that is
defined in the user profile.
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 15
Team Server
The Team Server is a central repository to manage
and version application models. Team Server
is written as an extension on top of Subversion
(SVN), a widely adopted open source software
configuration management system.
Central Project Repository
Team Server enables multi-user development of
apps in the Mendix App Platform. Team Server
is tightly integrated with both Projects and
the Business Modeler, which creates a unique
environment for managing all relevant artifacts
in the app delivery cycle, from requirements, to
application models and deployment packages.
This works as follows:
When a new project is defined in Projects, a
dedicated and versioned model repository
is automatically created for the project in
the Team Server.
View only or edit access rights to Team
Server can be assigned to team members
based on their role in the project. This is
configured in the Project Dashboard. Team
members with edit rights get a local copy of
the project model in the Business Modeler.
They can work on the model and commit
changes to the Team Server with a single
click, which leads to a new revision of the
model. Committed changes from other
team members are synchronized with the
local version of the repository.
The integration of Team Server with both the
Project Dashboard and Business Modeler has
significant advantages:
It provides team members with a
revolutionary way to track requirements
throughout the whole development and
delivery cycle. When you start working on
your application, you just open the Mendix
Business Modeler to see the user stories
planned for the current sprint and start
working on them.
When team members commit application
model changes to the Team Server from
within the Business Modeler, they can select
the user stories they have been working on.
The Team Server will automatically create
links between these user stories and the
model changes made, providing a way to
navigate from commits to the associated
requirements.
End users can provide feedback straight
from the user interface of the app. This
feedback can be transferred into a user
story. As a developer, you can directly go
to the form mentioned in the metadata of
the feedback and start implementing the
requested change.
Development lines Branch & Merge
A development project always starts with a
single development line, the Main line. This is
the development line that will lead within the
development process.
A deployment from that line must contain all
(released) functions of the application. Besides
the Main line, a project can have multiple branch
lines. Branches are made from a specific commit
(revision) of one of the developers. Creating a
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 16
branch means that a copy is made of the selected
revision and this will be used as the starting
revision for the new development line.
This allows the developer to change the model
in an isolated line. In most cases, a branch line is
used for solving issues in a released version of
the application, while the ongoing development
continues in the main line. This allows new
development in the main line, without releasing
not finalized / tested functionalities. After creating
a branch and solving the issue, or creating a
new bigger feature, it is possible to merge these
changes with the Main Line.
Branch 4 5
Merge
Main 1 2 3 6 7 CSS files
Figure 15. Branching and Merging
Team Server API
The Team Server functionality is exposed through
an API so that it can be called by other platform
services or external applications. For example, a
get latest commit call to the Team Server API for
an app project will return the latest revision of the
artifacts for the project.
Business Server
The Build Server creates deployment packages
from artifacts such as models, style sheets,
custom java classes, etc. in the app project on
the Team Server where all the application artifacts
are versioned and stored in app project folders.
Build Server API
The Build Server functionality is exposed through
an API so that it can be called by other platform
services or 3rd party apps. For example, a build
deployment package call for an app project
revision will return a deployment package for the
app.
Deployment Packages
Deployment Packages are versioned application
packages that hold the collection of executable
models that together define a Mendix app. A
deployment package consists of:
Models
8 Custom Java libraries (compiled)
External Libraries
Metadata
The Mendix App Platform version that
the app should run on
Input Parameters e.g. interval for
scheduled events defined in the
app models
User Roles as defined in the
app models
Revision #
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 17
MxID
Mendix offers MxID, a user management and
provisioning service that applies the OpenID
standard. It can be integrated with Active
Directory and Single Sign On (SSO) protocols.
MxID provides a login server for the Mendix
Launchpad, the central access portal for
Mendix apps. Furthermore, MxID provides an
administration portal for the management of:
Companies, that are tenants on the
Mendix Cloud Apart from the company
profile and settings, Mendix also supports
the definition of Company Admins who can
assign permissions to other users following
a delegated administration concept. So one
or more administrators can be identified
per tenant who, in turn, can perform certain
administrative tasks in the tenant according
to the permissions that were granted.
App User Management Based on policy
rules, users are assigned a user role within
an application. MxID automatically reads the
user roles from the application.
Cloud Portal
The Cloud Portal enables you to manage users
and environments, deploy apps to the cloud
with a single click and manage and monitor their
performance. The Cloud Portal is the interface to
the Deployment Services layer in the platform.
User Management
The Cloud Portal allows administrators to manage
users (defined in MxID) and configure role-based
access for users to environments to deploy and
manage apps. The Cloud Portal is integrated into
the project dashboard, so you have a 360-degree
view of all access rights for a specific person
within the context of an app.
Mendix enforces the segregation of duties
between (at least) the developer and application
administrator, whose roles are both safeguarded
using personal accounts.
Figure 16. User Management
Dashboard
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 18
Configuration Management
Administrators can configure the environments
assigned to them from the Cloud Portal. Mendix
provides the full runtime environment, called App
Environments, needed to run an app. Network
access, hardware, operating system, database and
all other necessary infrastructure components
are automatically provisioned. Some examples of
configurable services are:
Certificate-based authentication This
is a security feature whereby the customer
or third party provides certificates that are
needed to access an external application
not hosted in the Mendix Cloud. This
certificate can be easily installed using the
Cloud Portal.
Certificate-based authentication,
Mendix side This is a security feature
whereby the customer or a third party
provides a certificate that has to be used to
access an application in the Mendix Cloud.
Models
Business Team
Modeler Server
Models
Deployment
Packages
Build
Server
Figure 17. One-click Deployment Flow
IP Filtering A more traditional approach
to secure online applications is the use of
IP filtering. Mendix supports IP filtering
per application to provide access to the
application from trusted locations. This
option is used predominantly for internally
used applications.
Custom URLs Applications running in the
Mendix Cloud are easily accessible by every
device through URLs. Mendix supports
all sorts of URLs making it possible to use
your own domain name.* It is also possible
to add multiple URLs to your application.
Incoming connections can be checked using
client certificates.
*Custom domain names require SNI
Other examples of platform configuration: log
behavior, application- and environment-specific
parameters (defined in the model), etc.
App
Deployment
Packages
Cloud
Portal
Mendix
Business
Server
Package
Repository App Environment
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 19
Deployment Management
One-click Deployment
The one-click deployment concept in Mendix
makes it easy to deploy apps from the Cloud
Portal to one or multiple App Environments.
From a deployment perspective, an app is defined
as a versioned Deployment Package that contains
all the artifacts needed to run the application. The
flow starts at the Business Modeler where the app
is developed and composed. All the artifacts are
stored in the app project repository on the Team
Server. The Build Server creates the deployment
packages from a revision of artifacts in the app
project repository. The package is stored in the
package repository.
Through the Cloud Portal, the app is actually
deployed in an App Environment. As all of the
components have clearly defined APIs, they can
be approached by other platform components
and external applications in a consistent manner.
Test Automation & Continuous Integration
This approach allows for continuous integration
and supports automated testing of builds. Mendix
comes with a test framework for unit testing and
automated UI testing based on Selenium.
The Cloud Portal returns a URL for each
deployment package that can be used in the test
suite. This framework is extensible with a full
test suite management solution built in Mendix
offered by a Mendix partner.

3. Deploy in App
Test Environment
Models
4. Start App in
Business Team Cloud Test Environment
Modeler Server Portal
Mendix
5. Start Business
User Stories 1. Get Latest Commit Test Script Server

2. Build
Deployment
Packages
Build Package
Projects Server Repository Selenium App Environment

6. Feedback

Figure 18. Test Automation and Continuous Integration Flow

MENDIX APP PLATFORM 20

Through the use of the platform APIs and
specific scripts, the following flow for continuous
integration is supported:
DTAP environments Mendix supports
a staging procedure for Development
(on your local machine) Acceptance
Production (DAP) environments,
optionally extended with an additional
Test environment to DTAP. Every step
in the procedure is controlled by those
who have been specifically authorized to
do so. Because each App Environment
is fully identical to the others, there are
no additional risks with regards to the
non-synchronicity of test, acceptance and
production environments. The chronology
within your D(T)AP procedure, which
includes not only the required chronology
of activities but also the specific access
roles for deployment, ensures that you will
never encounter surprises once you release
an application version in your production
environment.
Figure 19. Deployment
Package
Overview
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 21
Monitoring & Alerting
Administrators have a comprehensive, real-time
view of application performance metrics through
a dashboard within the Mendix App Platform.
This includes details on CPU and memory usage,
app environment and database usage, database
requests and user logins, as well as preconfigured
alerts. The dashboards support multiple views
on the data e.g. by day, week, month and year.
Mendix delivers a set of best practice thresholds
for which notifications will be triggered if
exceeded.
Figure 20. Monitoring Dashboard
Auditability
All relevant actions both within your Mendix
apps and on the platform level are logged and
these logs can be viewed and downloaded from
the Cloud Portal:
Platform-level Actions regarding
configuration, provisioning, deployment,
start and stop of apps, back-up, etc. are
logged with time stamp and user ID.
Application-level Actions like login and
logout and specifically defined actions in the
application model, such as calls to external
systems like SAP, can be logged and viewed
from the Cloud Portal.
Backup
Automatic Backup
Every night, your data is automatically backed
up. Both the acceptance and production
environments are subject to these automatic
backups. The backups are snapshots & contain
your database, files & cloud configurations. Cloud
configurations are used to automatically restore
your backup on a different location (data center).
Backups are stored up to one year as follows:
Nightly Backups: 2 weeks
Weekly Backups (every Sunday): 3 months
Monthly Backups (1st Sunday of each
month): 1 year
You can download all backups through the Cloud
Portal to easily access your data.
Manual Create & Restore Backups
Even though automatic daily backups are created,
the Cloud Portal allows you to easily create a
manual backup. Just like nightly backups, manual
backups are stored for two weeks and can easily
be downloaded to retrieve all of your data from
the cloud. Restoring a backup is just as simple:
select or upload the backup and click on restore
in the Cloud Portal. Of course, you will need the
right permissions to create or restore backups in
a specific environment. See role & environment
based access for more details.
Storage in Multiple Locations
Backups are always stored in secure,
geographically dispersed locations within your
region. Backup locations are in the same region
(US, Europe, etc.) to comply with local regulations.
In the rare event that a disaster strikes, your data
is still secure. Using the cloud configurations in
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 22
the backups, your apps can be easily restored in
another location should the need arise.
App Store
The Mendix App Store is a public marketplace for
apps and application building blocks. This App
Store can also be configured to serve as a private,
enterprise App Store, so that end users and
business managers can discover what apps are
accessible to them within their organization.
Apps
Mendix and Mendix partners publish apps in
the App Store, offering a variety of solutions
for horizontal business needs like Human
Resource Management as well as vertical specific
applications. Examples include an IT service
management solution, an HR suite, a retail
promotion manager, a case management solution
and a healthcare solution.
Figure 21. The Mendix App Store
Building Blocks
For developers, the App Store offers a rich
repository of re-usable building blocks that can
significantly accelerate development productivity.
These building blocks are shared in the Mendix
community as open source items or commercial
products. The App Store can be accessed on
the web at appstore.mendix.com, from the
Launchpad or is directly accessible from the
Mendix Business Modeler, and building blocks
can be loaded into the project model with a
single click. The building blocks are presented as
add-ons in the App Store with the following sub-
categories:
Modules A module is a self-contained
application building block that can be
re-used in multiple applications. Modules
can be downloaded from the App Store
into a project as a local copy. By doing so,
the module becomes part of the project
scope and will be maintained through its
lifecycle as part of the application project.
It is possible to consume updates for
modules from the App Store, but obviously
those updates need to be validated against
potential local changes of the module.
A module typically consists of a domain
model, UIs and Microflows. Although
technically identical, the following types of
modules can be distinguished:
Functional business modules (e.g.
credit rating service)
Integration modules (e.g. Excel
Importer, SAP Connector)
Technical module (e.g. audit logging)
Export Import
Package Package
Business Team Business
Modeler Server Modeler
Project X Project Y
Figure 22. Exporting and Importing Modules
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 23
 App Services App Services are published,
pre-defined app-to-app integrations for
independently deployed Mendix apps. App
Services serve the following objectives in
Mendix application development context:
Business Engineers (developers
without a formal programming
background) can consume and apply
more technical application services as
building blocks without the need to
master the technicalities themselves.
An App Service can simply be applied
as an activity type within a Microflow
in the Mendix Business Modeler (e.g.
Get Customer from SAP), hiding the
technical complexity completely for
more functionally oriented developers.
Functionality can be re-used time and
again across multiple apps by making it
a service with its own and independent
lifecycle. App Services have a versioned
API to achieve this.
Figure 23. Using an App Service in a Microflow
A Mendix app can call another app through
the App Service - a Remote Function Call
(RFC) - without the need to define web
services and to create XML and Schema
Item
Master
App
V1 V2 V1
Order Warehouse
Pricing Management Management
App
App App
Figure 24. Runtime Use of App Services
mappings. In the example below, the Item
Master App is called by three different
applications. As Mendix supports versioned
App Services, multiple versions of the App
Service can be used simultaneously, which
is useful to support more advanced lifecycle
management and stepwise migration of the
app service.
There are two types of App Services:
Mendix Platform App Services
Mendix offers a set of App Services
out of the box, for example the
AppCloudServices module. This module
enables single sign on for all apps that
use this App Service by connecting these
apps to a specific app in the Mendix
platform that handles the SSO service.
All of the Mendix App Platform APIs are
available as App Services, so that they
can be easily used when developing
apps in Mendix.
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 24
 App 1

Models
App 1
Business App 1 Team Package
Modeler Server App 2 Repository
Mendix
Business
Deployment Deployment
Server
Models
Packages Package App 2

Deployment
Package App 1

Models
Register App Service
App 2 Build Cloud Subscription for App 2
Server Portal

Deployment Publish Interface

Package App 2 Definition

App 1

Mendix
Business
Server

Business App
Modeler Store

Import Interface
Definition

Figure 25. Test Automation and Continuous Integration Flow

Custom App Services Customers can without the risk of getting stuck in device
define App Services as well to connect specific UI adoptions through coding.

custom-built applications to each other

or integrate standard apps offered by Themes Themes are used to style
partners with custom-built applications. applications. Theyre based on CSS3
For example, an app service could call and Mendix leverages Bootstrap.
a standard credit rating app offered in
Examples: Bootstrap for Mendix, United
the App Store from a custom built app
Theme
for order management.

Widgets Widgets are re-usable UI

Layouts Layouts are used to structure
components that allow you to quickly
the user interface. It allows you to define a
compose pages in Mendix. Mendix
default page structure, which can be re-
comes with a set of standard widgets
used as a template for pages.
that are supplemented with custom
Examples: Bootswatch, TaskManager Application.
Layouts are defined for different types of devices: widgets from the App Store.
Web, Tablet and Mobile to optimize the UX of an app Examples: Calendar Widget, Carousel List
depending on the device being used. Mendix serves
the goal of enabling functionally oriented developers
to build great and appealing multi-channel apps
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 25
Component-based Development
Applications in Mendix consist of one or more
modules. A module typically has a functional
scope (e.g. business partners, orders, connectors,
etc.) and is self-contained so that modules can be
re-used in other applications.
This approach to app development has significant
advantages:
Increased productivity
Runtime Services Model Execution
The Mendix App Platform runs applications that
are developed in the Dev Center and deployed
via the Cloud Portal in a runtime environment,
whereby the application models are executed as
services in a runtime engine.
The runtime services in the Mendix App Platform
are handled by the Mendix Client and the Mendix
Business Server. The UI layer is implemented in

Re-use of assets on multiple levels of the Mendix Client as JavaScript libraries running
granularity: in the browser. The Logic and Data layers are
implemented in the Mendix Business Server. The
Application modules can be published
Mendix Business Server itself is built in Java and
to the public and / or private App
Store and be consumed in other app Scala.
development projects as functional
modules, technical (integration)
Mendix Client
modules or UI widgets.

Applications that have been deployed

CSS3 Web & Mobile UIs HTML5
already on Mendix can be integrated
with each other as well through App Mendix Business Server
Services.
Logic Layer
Less technical domain experts involved
in app development can consume more Data Layer

technical building blocks (e.g. integrations)

very easily.

Independent release cycles for apps

Database Webservice API
integrated through App Services

Improved transparency and control over Figure 27. Component-based Development

apps and application building blocks

Import Module

Import Widget
App
Publish App Service
Store

Consume App Service Order Management App

Business
Partner
App Business Google
Partners Maps

Excel
Orders Import

Figure 26. Component-based Development MENDIX APP PLATFORM 26

The Mendix Client
The Mendix Client provides a high-performance,
rich Internet application web interface (using Ajax
technology) supporting all major browsers (IE,
Chrome, Safari and Firefox).
Web and Mobile Forms
The client provides both web-forms and
responsive mobile forms depending on the
device using it. Mobile forms are optimized
for the screen size of the respective device
(smartphone or tablet) to provide the mobile app
experience to which people are accustomed. Web
forms leverage the strength of web browsers to
provide a rich user interface. The Mendix client
is optimized only to load relevant components to
minimize network, CPU and memory usage.
Figure 28. Mendix HTML UI
The Mendix App Platform enables you to extend
your existing business processes to mobile
devices. Mendix supports web and hybrid
(Cordova) mobile forms and is fully HTML5
and CSS3 compliant which makes it platform
independent.
The Mendix Client has a core layer for session
management, caching, an event subscribe
interface to widgets and for keeping the history.
The standard and custom widgets built in Mendix
communicate with the core layer through an API.
The Communication Layer handles the
communication with the Mendix Business Server.
Mendix Client
Widgets
API
Core
Communication Layer
Mendix Business Server
Figure 29. Mendix Client Architecture
Customizable Look & Feel
The styling of applications is based on Cascading
Style Sheets (CSS). This provides the option to
apply any corporate branding to an application
very quickly.
Custom Widgets
For developers, the Mendix Client offers an
extensive and well-documented API, so custom
widgets can be added to the experience. These
widgets can be configured within the Mendix
Business Modeler.
Mendix Business Server
In essence, the Mendix Business Server contains
an integrated set of run-time engines responsible
for the interpretation and execution of the
models in run-time. The Business Server itself has
a modular structure with a core service interface
that connects all modules. Each module provides
services to implement a DSL.
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 27
Objects & Actions
The Mendix Business Server is based on two
important concepts: Mendix objects and actions.
A Mendix object is an object with multiple
representations such as a XML document, Java
object or JSON object. Each client can ask the
Business Server for objects in its preferred
representation. An Ajax application, for example,
prefers objects directly in a JSON format, while an
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) can prefer an XML
document. Regardless of the representation form,
the logic applied to these objects remains the
same.
To apply system or process logic, operations need
to be executed. Each operation within the Mendix
Business Server is called an action. The Business
Server provides many predefined actions, such as
Apps
Mendix App Platform
Any Database Any Service Any App Any File
Mendix is built to integrate, unlock and extend existing systems
Figure 30. Mendix Platform Integration Capabilities
Create-Read-Update-Delete (CRUD) operations on
Mendix objects, triggering and executing flows,
evaluating business rules or executing custom
Java code. Each action can execute other actions,
resulting in a tree structure in which transactions
can be defined. Also, each action can be invoked
by different interfaces such as HTTP, Web services
or the Java API. The combination of supporting
multiple representations of Mendix objects,
and the execution of actions through different
interfaces, provides the basis for the integration
of the Business Server in other systems.
Integration
A key component of the Mendix platform is
integration. Therefore, the Mendix Business
Server is designed to map data from external
systems to Mendix object definitions. The primary
task of the data layer is providing the logic layer
with Mendix objects. The data for these objects
can be retrieved from different data stores, each
with its own specific interface. For example, data
can be retrieved from a relational database via
JDBC, from external systems via remote function
calls (RFC), or from an Enterprise Service Bus
(ESB) via Web Services (SOAP and Rest). The
Mendix object definitions are abstracted from a
specific technology implementation and can be
represented as XML, JSON or Java objects.
Application functionality built in Mendix can be
exposed and consumed as services through
Microflows. Microflows can be called via multiple
protocols such as SOAP, REST and JMS.
The decoupling of Mendix objects and Microflow
definitions from its technical implementation are
making them future proof for adoption of new
technology developments.
Mendix and Mendix partners provide numerous
out-of-the-box integrations to applications like
SAP, business services like postal code look-up
service and file storage / office collaboration
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 28
environments, such as MS SharePoint and Google
Apps. These integrations are all published in the
Mendix App Store and can be used in the form
of App Services or downloadable Modules. To
provide a single interface on different relational
databases, the Business Server translates XPath
(hierarchical) and OQL (relational) queries as
universal languages to specific SQL queries.
The Mendix Business Server supports major
database management systems including Oracle,
PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server.
Deployment Architecture
Deploying your application in the cloud takes
place on a Mendix Cloud Node that Mendix
provisions for your company in a cloud datacenter
from one of the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
providers used by Mendix.
Mendix Cloud is fully standardized on the
following stack: Nginx as web server, Debian Linux
as operating system and PostgreSQL as database.

Mendix ID

Infrastructure as a Service -
Access & Security Services
Cloud Portal
SSL

Load-balanced
Routing Layer
Controller

Test Acceptance Production Test Acceptance Production

Mendix Mendix Mendix Mendix Mendix Mendix

Business Business Business Business Business Business
Server Server Server Server Server Server

Cloud Node 1 Cloud Node 2

Service Broker

Infrastructure as a Service - Networking, Compute, Storage

Figure 30. Mendix cloud Deployment Architecture

MENDIX APP PLATFORM 29

Containment
A Cloud Node is a grouping of virtual and
autonomous instances of the Mendix runtime,
dedicated to your company that includes an
(optional) Test, Acceptance and Production
environment, each running in their own App
Environment. This App Environment also includes
firewall, web server and database services.
Mendix Cloud Nodes run on dedicated Virtual
Machines (VMs) at the IaaS provider or can run on
Cloud Foundry containers.
The purpose of an App Environment is to
contain the behavior and consumption of an
environment, shielding other environments (and
apps) from each other.
As each App Environment has its own dedicated
web server and firewall services, Mendix supports
customization at the App Environment level
through the Cloud Portal without affecting
other App Environments. For example, the
customization of request handlers for a specific
App Environment is not compromised by
demands and desires of other Mendix customers.
The Mendix Business Server is connected to a
dedicated database for the App Environment. The
database is only accessible by this specific Mendix
Business Server instance. The App Environment
setup allows test, acceptance and production
instances of the same application to operate
identically but independently.
Because the App Environments are fully
standardized, Mendix has been able to optimize
the combination of OS, integration software,
virtualization software, etc. and to implement
the highest possible degree of security and
performance.
Routing and Network Encryption (SSL)
The runtime engine, the Mendix Business Server
(MBS), running in a container is accessed via a
load-balanced routing layer of clustered Nginx
web servers that routes the traffic to the relevant
App Environment whereby the web server is
responsible for the SSL connections.
Additionally, all common access and security
services from the IaaS provider are used for the
traffic that goes to their infrastructure. The SSL
connection starting from the browser terminates
at the web server service on the target App
Environment. This ensures that data is encrypted
end to end so that other App Environments
cannot intercept any data from the target App
Environment.
Controller
The controller is triggered by the Cloud Portal and
handles the configuration of the infrastructure
services to deploy applications.
Service Broker
Apps can publish and consume App Services.
These App Services can be connected using the
deployment interface in the Cloud Portal. The
Service Broker is responsible for providing the
service instance.
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 30
The App Delivery Cycle Business Modeler. The user stories are visible to
Weve now discussed the various platform the developers and they can update the status of
modules and services. The picture below gives an the user stories. You can monitor the progress of
impression of how the platform supports the full the project by means of a burn down chart in the
app delivery cycle. Projects module.

Build - Rather than building the whole app from

Feedback scratch, you can first check whether the App Store
Launchpad Projects
Users Projects
offers any re-usable building blocks to speed up
Launch App
development. The standard App Services from the
platform are handy to consume as well.
Status
Links

User
Stories
The result of the development activities is an app
Models
Runtime Team
Server that contains a domain model, user interfaces
Deployment
Models and process and application logic defined as
microflows. The models are all stored under the
project ID in the Team Server. From the Team
Cloud Server, the deployment packages to run the app
Portal Build Business
Server Modeler are created. Its possible to do this directly from
Apps & Modules the Business Modeler as well, which triggers the
same functionality in the Team Server. Apps and
Deployment Package building blocks like modules or widgets can be
Packages References
Package
Repository
App
Store published to the (enterprise) App Store for re-use.

NOTE: Modules marked in blue are part of the Dev Center

Deploy The administrator can select the
Figure 31. Mendix App Delivery Cycle deployment package in the Cloud Portal and
deploy your app on an App Environment and
provision the users for the app.
Design - An app development project starts
by launching the Developer Portal from the
Manage The administrator monitors the
Launchpad. This gives access to the Dev Center,
performance of your app and manages the
where you can define your app development
resources, for example to ensure that you get the
project in the Projects module. Youll assemble
right level of performance.
the team by identifying users and inviting them to
participate in the project.
Iterate - End users will launch the app on their
Launchpad. They can give direct feedback from
You can now start defining the requirements
the user interface, which will then appear in the
for your app in the form of user stories. Once
Projects module. Feedback can be addressed
the scope of the app has been defined and
immediately or transferred into a new user story
broken down into one or more sprints, the actual
to be included in a next release.
development of the app can start using the

MENDIX APP PLATFORM 31

Non-Functional
Platform Characteristics
Multi-Tenancy
The Mendix App Platform has a cloud native
architecture that supports flexible configuration
of multi-tenancy. The default configuration of
Mendix Cloud is to share infrastructure amongst
tenants and provide isolated App Environments.
Apps deployed into App Environments can be
single-tenant or multi-tenant:
Single-Tenant Apps - These apps are
dedicated for use at one specific client. This
is a very common use case considering that
Mendix is a platform as a service offering to
rapidly develop custom apps.
Multi-Tenant Apps - These apps share the
same database, application logic and user
interface across clients. Multi-tenant apps
can be offered by ISVs and solution partners
of Mendix, but are also built frequently by
enterprises to offer supplier, customer and
partner portals with complete segregation
of data, while offering customization of logic
and style-sheets. Tenants are defined by
identifying companies in the Mendix Identity
Management module, MxID. The company /
tenant ID is used to:

Mendix ID

Infrastructure as a Service -
Access & Security Services
Cloud Portal
SSL

Load-balanced
Routing Layer

Test Acceptance Production Test Acceptance Production

Mendix Mendix Mendix Mendix Mendix Mendix

Business Business Business Business Business Business
Server Server Server Server Server Server

Cloud Node 1 Cloud Node 2

Infrastructure as a Service - Networking, Compute, Storage

Figure 32. Mendix App Delivery Cycle

MENDIX APP PLATFORM 32

 Define a tenant-aware object model
for the application. Tenant-level access
to domain objects is configured using
XPath definitions. This restricts access
to those application object instances
for the users company.
Define tenant-specific Microflows and
configure access rights to implement
tenant-level application and process
logic.
Apply tenant-specific styling of the user
interface by making the cascading style
sheets (CSS) dependent on companies
defined in MxID.
Tenants can be custom defined in the application
as well by using identifiers like division, country,
site, channel, etc. instead of company.
Security
Mendix applications have been deployed by
hundreds of companies to support numerous
and varied business processes. All these different
Mendix users share the critical need for their
applications to be secure and accessible.
Security at a High Level
The Mendix App Platform meets enterprise-level
requirements for security and addresses security
measures on multiple levels of granularity,
including multi-tenancy aspects:
The Mendix Business Server handles known
security threats in the runtime.
The Mendix Business Modeler supports
application security settings to define roles
and authorizations.
MxID supports identity and access
management. In addition, Mendix integrates
with 3rd party identity management
solutions.
The Mendix Cloud Portal supports app
management, deployment and monitoring.
Application Lifecycle Logging
The Mendix App Platform logs relevant activities
throughout the entire app delivery cycle to ensure
compliance with customers requirements for
auditability.
Mendix Cloud Deployment and
Containment of Environments
The Mendix App Platform is deployed on a
Mendix Cloud Node, a grouping of virtual and
autonomous instances of the Mendix runtime,
dedicated to a customer, that includes an
(optional) Test, Acceptance and Production
environment, each running in their own app
environment.
This App Environment also includes firewall, web
server and database services. The purpose of an
App Environment is to contain the behavior and
consumption of an environment, shielding other
environments (and apps) from each other.
Backup and Disaster Recovery
All data (model, database and file storage) is
automatically backed up daily. Backups are stored
in secured, geographically dispersed locations.
Mendix offers disaster recovery services: as an
additional option, a standby environment at a
secondary hosting location can be configured,
allowing companies to resume operations from a
different physical location.
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 33
Organization Level Security Measures
Mendix, as an organization, embeds security
in company processes and standard operating
procedures by adopting a representative subset
of the ISO 27001 / 27002 Information Security
Framework. Mendix achieved ISAE 3402 assertion.
An independent auditing firm periodically
performs security audits. Furthermore, a leading
IT security firm performs regular penetration tests
on the Mendix App Platform.
For more information on security, please consult
the Security for Cloud - and On Premise
Deployment technical white paper, which is
available through your local account manager.
Performance
The Mendix App Platform is used to build large-
scale and mission-critical applications. The
architecture is therefore optimized to deliver high-
performance applications. In this context, three
aspects are critical: what standard mechanisms
are available in the platform to ensure optimal
performance, what tools are offered to monitor
performance and what tools are available to
optimize performance.
Standard platform performance mechanisms
The Mendix App Platform specifically optimizes
performance via the following mechanisms:
1 Default multi-threading for Microflows
The processing of Microflows is designed for
multi-threading by default, whereby each
invoke of a Microflow is executed in its own
thread with its own memory scope.
2 Optimized client server communication
through:
a Communication of net changes only, to
minimize bandwidth usage
b Retrieval schemes that allow for
selecting relevant object attributes vs.
the entire object and complete object
trees to minimize bandwidth usage and
client side CPU consumption.
3 XPath to SQL optimization Queries are
optimized for execution in the target
database to minimize database CPU
consumption.
4 Out-of-the-box connection pooling to
minimize communication overhead
between MBS and the database.
5 Automatic and configurable indexing
to minimize CPU usage and memory
consumption in database.
A business engineer developing an app in Mendix
does not need to consider these performance
aspects as the Mendix platform handles this
automatically. The Static Model Analyzer in the
Mendix Business Modeler detects potentially slow
or expensive flows and queries and flags them.
Performance Analysis
Practice shows that in general, in case
performance issues arise, the majority of time
is spent on analyzing and finding the root cause
vs. actually fixing the issue. Hence, it is critical to
provide the right tools for efficient and effective
analysis.
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 34
The Mendix App Platform offers out-of-the box
tools for performance analysis:
1 Performance monitoring tool in the Cloud
Portal that is integrated with the Mendix
Business Server to analyze the performance
on the level of individual Microflows
and activities within a Microflow (incl.
queries). Its possible to define thresholds
for Microflow performance so that alerts
can be triggered when a threshold is
reached. Mendix tracks a series of metrics
with default thresholds in the following
categories:
Hardware & Network
Web Server
Databases
Application
2 The Live Debugger in the platform allows
developers to step through a Microflow
and all its activities and actions live in the
runtime and shows performance statistics
amongst other information.
3 A query analysis tool to detect how queries
are actually executed.
The fact that the Mendix Business Server applies
model interpretation offers a significant and
unique advantage over traditional approaches
like code generation as it real-time and highly
targeted analysis. For example, the Live Debugger
allows a developer or performance engineer to
monitor one specific user session remotely and
zoom into all relevant performance parameters
for that specific session.
Performance Optimization
Should an app face performance challenges,
despite measures in the platform, Mendix
offers the following possibilities to optimize
performance:
1 Run the relevant Microflows in batch-mode.
The communication with the database for
CRUD actions is handled in batches. The
batch size is custom definable.
2 Handle Microflows asynchronously. This is
implemented in Eclipse via the Java API.
3 Override the actions in the Mendix
Business Server with a custom optimized
implementation of that action, e.g. call
a stored procedure in the database for
example to execute a hierarchical query.
Although the last two options are seldom used
in practice, it is always possible to fall back on
proven and traditional techniques to guarantee
performance.
Customer Example
Mendix conducted a load and performance test
for a large Member Management System with
10,000 concurrent users. The results were that:
91
of requests by load generators
% offered to the server were handled
within 10ms, & 99% below 100ms
10 k
users
working in the application will not
notice any decline in performance
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 35
Scalability
The Mendix App Platform has a scalable
architecture that can be configured according to
the customers needs. Mendix offers vertical and
horizontal scaling options:
Vertical Scaling - The default multi-
threading of Microflows as described in
the previous paragraph, whereby each
invoked instance of a Microflow runs in its
own dedicated thread, is the starting point
for flexible vertical scaling. Through the
Cloud Portal, additional resources can be
added to the App Environment in which the
application is running to support higher
load and volume by adding more computing
power. The additional capacity can be
easily (re-)allocated across various App
Environments.
Horizontal Scaling - For mission-critical
applications, customers may require a
high-availability environment to run the
app. This can be configured by defining a
cluster of App Environments either sharing
a single database or based on database
replication. Mendix offers horizontal scaling
as an additional service. There are two
performance use cases that would typically
trigger the need for horizontal scaling:
High-Volume Transaction
Processing - Mendix also offers
the tools to support high-volume
transaction processing of small
transactions (e.g. cash withdrawals
/ payments) such as transient
objects and asynchronous database
communication. Through this
approach, near-linear scalability of
apps can be achieved.
Disaster Recovery & Fallback
Mendix offers disaster recovery services.
Depending on the nature of the disaster and
the ability to resume operations at the disaster
location, various scenarios apply.
A full disaster recovery scenario, whereby
the operations will be resumed from a
different physical location, can be configured
by implementing a standby environment at
a secondary hosting location. Replication of
application files and data is then required to
obtain the desired Recovery Point Objective and
Recovery Time Objective beyond what Mendix
offers in the standard Service Level Agreement.

Heavy Batch Processing - Mendix

supports flexible allocation of
Microflow execution to dedicated
App Environments e.g. to protect
traffic regular users from heavy batch
processing. For read actions, this would
optimize memory consumption and
for write actions, this minimizes the
overhead to the database.

MENDIX APP PLATFORM 36

 Figure 33. Horizontal Scaling
Mendix ID

Infrastructure as a Service -
Access & Security Services
Cloud Portal
SSL

Load-balanced
Routing Layer

Test Acceptance Production

Mendix Mendix Mendix Mendix Mendix

Business Business Business Business Business
Server Server Server Server Server

DBMS Primary Secondary Primary Secondary

DBMS DBMS DBMS DBMS

Infrastructure as a Service - Networking, Compute, Storage

Figure 34. Disaster Recovery

and Fallback
Mendix ID

Infrastructure as a Service -
Access & Security Services
Cloud Portal
SSL

Load-balanced
Routing Layer

SSL SSL

Test Acceptance Production Production

Data
Replication

Mendix Mendix Mendix Mendix

Business Business Business Business
Server Server Server Server

Data
Replication

Primary Availability Zone Secondary

Availability Zone

Infrastructure as a Service - Networking, Compute, Storage

MENDIX APP PLATFORM 37

Deployment
Mendix Cloud
The Mendix App Platform, as described above,
is offered as a service to run applications built
on the platform on infrastructure provided
and operated by Mendix. Mendix works with
infrastructure providers, such as Rackspace, and
provides SLAs to customers for operating the
service.
For more information on Mendix Cloud, the
standard services package and additional services,
please consult the Mendix Cloud service offering
paper, which is available through your local
account manager.
If required, Mendix supports local storage of
Team Server artifacts (e.g. models, projects,
users, etc.) through local implementation of the
SVN repository. As a consequence, users would
need to be manually synchronized with a local
identity management solution and maintaining a
history of SVN content needs to be organized with
additional tooling.
The picture below shows both alternatives,
whereby the use of SVN in Mendix Cloud is the
default. If a customer decides to use a local
version of SVN, its simply a matter of referring to
a different URL for the local SVN repository from
the Mendix Business Modeler.

Mendix On-Premise Mendix recommends the following deployment

The Mendix App Platform can be deployed in an architecture, which is quite similar to the cloud
on-premise data center as well. An on-premise deployment architecture.
deployment of the Mendix App Platform means
installing the runtime component, Mendix
Business Server.

Get User Get

The App Store, Launchpad and Dev Center, along Stories

Team
Revisions

Mendix
Projects Server Cloud SVN
with the Projects module, Team Server and Build
Mendix Cloud
Server, are exclusively offered as a cloud service,
On Premise
so its the actual deployment of apps in test,
Get Get SVN

acceptance or production environments that will

Revisions URL

take place in an on-premise data center.

Local Business
SVN Modeler
The platform services MxID and Cloud Portal are
not available as on-premise services, so identity
Figure 35. Options for using SVN Repository
management has to be arranged with 3rd party
tools like Active Directory and the deployment
and configuration management aspects with
other 3rd party DevOps and platform monitoring
tools.

MENDIX APP PLATFORM 38


Infrastructure as a Service -
Access & Security Services
SSL
Service
Console
Test Acceptance
Package
Repository
Mendix Mendix
Business Business
Server Server
Mendix
Repository
Figure 36. Mendix On-Premise Deployment Architecture
The Mendix Business Server is accessed via a
web server (such as IIS, Nginx or Apache) that
routes the traffic to the relevant environment
whereby the web server is responsible for the SSL
connections. We also recommend implementing
a firewall in front of the web server in case the
application(s) built in Mendix are exposed to
external users.
The Mendix Business Server is typically deployed
with dedicated environments for Test, Acceptance
and Production. The Mendix Business Server
(MBS) runs on (virtual) machines / servers. The
Mendix Business Server is normally connected
to a dedicated database for the environment.
Non-production environments could share a
single instance of the database. We recommend
configuring the database for dedicated use by
Mendix.
Mendix provides a locally installable Service
Console for managing the Mendix Environments.
The Service Console connects to the Mendix
Deployment Package Repository where
application files are stored as well as the Mendix
Repository that holds the registry of Mendix
Versions deployed.
The Mendix Repository is checked to validate that
application packages built on a specific Mendix
version are actually deployable on the target App
Environment.
Production
For supported versions of web servers, operating
Mendix
Business systems and databases, see the systems
Server
requirements for the latest Mendix release as
described in the release Reference Guide.
Backup & Restore
Mendix leverages back-up and restore
functionality supported in the database
underneath the Mendix platform (for supported
databases, see the above mentioned Reference
Guide). The customer is responsible for the
configuration.
Network & Operating Systems Security
In the on-premise deployment scenario, the
customer is responsible for network and
operating system security.
Disaster Recovery and Data Loss Prevention
In the on-premise deployment scenario, the
customer is responsible for implementing
disaster recovery and data loss prevention by use
of common tools for database and file storage
replication.
MENDIX APP PLATFORM 39
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MENDIX APP PLATFORM 40