Platform economy

Siemens has purchased this no-code/low-code platform, which can be found on the SAP price list as SAP Cloud Platform RAD (Rapid Application Development) by Mendix.

You don't need to know much about it, except that Mendix is a pretty perfect app developer platform that is perfectly integrated into the SAP Cloud Platform (SCP) and can also communicate natively with the Hana database.

Soon there will also be a Mendix Data Hub, which naturally competes with SAP's Data Hub, but makes much more sense for Mendix developers than the SAP Data Hub.

Is Mendix just another programming language and developer platform after Abap? Yes, but - using Cloud Foundry, pretty much any programming language can be used as a development platform for SAP.

However, there are two aspects to consider: Integration and license rights. At Mendix World, SAP was the main sponsor alongside Mendix owner Siemens.

Interesting how the paths converge: SAP sells Mendix, which is a Siemens subsidiary; Siemens, in turn, is an existing SAP customer; and they all use the Hana database in one form or another. So the Mendix platform is probably better integrated into the SAP ecosystem than other developer systems.

Which leads directly to the topic of "indirect" use. Whenever SAP customers move a little outside the SAP territory, the sword of Damocles "indirect" use hovers over them.

If you buy SCP/RAD by Mendix from SAP for your app developers, you may immediately find a satisfactory agreement for "digital access" (document-based, indirect use).

Good news for existing SAP customers, bad news for SAP itself:

With Mendix, existing customers have an alternative to Abap and an open developer platform that harmonizes with the SAP Cloud Platform. The Mendix community is appalled by the departure of SAP CTO and President SAP Cloud Platform Björn Goerke, who naturally had many contacts with Mendix and SAP mentors - but that's a whole other story.