Mendix expands support with private, dedicated cloud options

Multi-cloud in demand

Some 86% of respondents to a recent Forrester Research survey said they may deploy workloads on hybrid cloud or multi-cloud environments. One-third of that group said they will use private cloud as part of their development strategy. In addition, 23% of respondents planned to deploy on-premises workloads together with public cloud deployment.

Increasingly, leading public cloud providers are offering their own versions of low-code and automation technologies to complement their Kubernetes offerings.

Forrester's survey focused on the general IT landscape and not specifically low-code vendors such as Mendix. But Mendix's cloud options could appeal to existing customers such as Kermit, a firm based in Hunt Valley, Md., that offers a spend management platform for hospitals to track the amount spent on implantable medical devices. The analytics-based platform helps medical institutions track physician preference items, which account for about 60% of a hospital's spending for supplies.

Kermit developed its cloud-based platform with Mendix. In fact, the CEO and two of his co-founders found Mendix so approachable that they downloaded a Mendix modeler and were able to construct a running application, said Richard Palarea, CEO and co-founder of Kermit.

"I am very comfortable with the paradigm of having control over the code and wanting to actually hard-code everything, versus having an environment where you can stitch together a business process and go into the app store and grab widgets that you need to bring your idea about," he said. "That, to me, just has always seemed like a better way of doing things."

The Kermit analytics platform, which was built by one core developer in nine months, enables hospitals to track and manage contracts, billings, and vendor compliance.

The company has primarily offered its platform to hospitals in Maryland, where Kermit manages 40% of the total spending on medical implants, Palarea said. Kermit began taking its platform nationwide at the end of last year.

"Healthcare analytics are a huge game right now," Palarea said. "Every CIO in hospitals these days is looking at these kinds of tools to manage the business better because lower reimbursements from both Medicare primarily and also third-party insurers mean the payment that they get for their surgeries are going down."

While it is too early for Kermit to consider using these new editions of the Mendix platform, company officials said that once use of the Kermit offering goes nationwide, they might take another look.