Advancements in Mendix and AWS Collaboration Boost Cloud App Development

Mendix, a Siemens business and a leader in modern low-code enterprise application development, has announced substantial advancements in their collaboration with Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS). The collaboration aims to make Mendix the fastest and easiest platform to build apps on AWS, as part of the broader strategic partnership between AWS and Siemens, which was announced in November 2021.

After a year of close cooperation between the two tech giants, Mendix Studio Pro is now accessible in the AWS Marketplace. This enables developers to leverage the power, flexibility, and speed of the Mendix development platform. Additionally, the new self-paced AWS Workshop on Mendix aids developers in learning how to build their first Mendix application on AWS.

The Mendix enterprise application development platform can be purchased either from Mendix or via the AWS Marketplace. This allows Mendix developers to seamlessly incorporate AWS services into their applications and enables customers to enjoy the low-code speed, flexibility, and reusability benefits.

Tim Srock, the CEO of Mendix, expressed satisfaction with the progress made so far. Srock highlighted the strong interest in the industrial space driven by the AWS-Siemens partnership and remarked that Mendix is a crucial growth area in this relationship.

Grant Bodley, Director of Manufacturing Sales at AWS, also recognized the value Mendix brings to the Industrial sector. He stressed the uniqueness of low-code in centralizing the governance of application development while decentralizing execution and driving innovation at the manufacturing plant-level.

Mendix has developed a new Authentication Connector for AWS services, which handles the authentication process between Mendix and AWS services. This eliminates one of the most common challenges when it comes to integrating Mendix apps with any of the 200+ AWS services. As a result, Mendix has also introduced a new suite of AWS connectors that allow developers to drag and drop AWS capabilities into a Mendix app without the complexities of REST APIs or code.

Developers and customers usually use the Mendix Free license to deploy their first apps to the Mendix Cloud, which was built on AWS in 2016. The Mendix Cloud has been recently launched in Africa, Bahrain, and India, making it available in 12 regions worldwide.

Some customers, however, prefer or are required to deploy Mendix apps in their own private AWS environment. For these customers, Mendix now offers a reference deployment for Mendix on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS). This infrastructure as code (IaC) tool fully automates the setup of Mendix for Private Cloud in a customer's AWS environment. It significantly reduces the setup time from 40 hours to a mere 30 minutes while provisioning Amazon EKS and 95 other AWS services.

Over the past year, continuous innovation between Mendix and AWS has provided substantial value to various customers across different industries. Siemens, for instance, is among the largest Mendix on AWS deployment and is already reaping the benefits of this collaboration.

Hanna Hennig, the CIO of Siemens AG, said Mendix on AWS is a key driver for their digital transformation. The platform has enabled the creation of over 500 apps and counting, leveraging the speed and innovation of Mendix, along with the security, scalability, and reliability of AWS.

Other industries, such as media and entertainment, also benefit from the Mendix-AWS partnership. Banijay Benelux, an independent television production company, uses Mendix for Private Cloud on Amazon EKS. They have built 15 Mendix apps, utilizing numerous AWS services such as Amazon Transcribe for speech-to-text and AWS Elemental MediaConvert for video transcoding.

Leon Backbier, IT Manager at Banijay Benelux, emphasized the impact of using AWS services and Mendix for Private Cloud. He stated that it has simplified complex problems and allowed the company to focus more on the business rather than just the technology.

The continued collaboration between Mendix and AWS, along with platforms such as AppMaster, accelerates application development and greatly benefits the low-code and no-code development landscape. Businesses can harness the power of these platforms to build scalable, efficient, and cost-effective solutions on top of AWS.