Why OutSystems applications need maintenance, even if it is cloud
Thomas Broekhuizen
Product (managed) services lead
OutSystems
Basics
OutSystems is a leading low-code development platform, born in Lisbon and now used by numerous large Dutch organizations. Think of Stedin, Eneco, Interfood, DAF, and a.s.r. A great example of European technology that we can be quite proud of.
With OutSystems, building applications is up to 6 times faster than with traditional software development. But it remains just that: software development.
You can run OutSystems on-premises or in the cloud. In practice, most companies opt for the cloud version. A great advantage: OutSystems then maintains the underlying IT infrastructure for you. However, the applications themselves, and the platform, still need a little attention from time to time to keep running smoothly. In this blog, we explain why that is, and what you can do about it yourself.
Everything you use wears out
You occasionally take your bicycle or car to the bicycle repair shop or garage for new tires or brakes, and an airplane requires regular maintenance to fly safely for more than 25 years. Everything that is being used, wears out. This applies just as much to software and therefore also to OutSystems applications. If you postpone maintenance for too long, one day your applications will simply stop working, or your version will become so outdated that the vendor no longer offers support. If something goes wrong at that moment, you immediately have a crisis on your hands. That is a pity, because it can easily be prevented. What this maintenance looks like in practice is explained below.
Maintenance of OutSystems applications
First of all, there is the maintenance of OutSystems applications. This is divided into:
Resolving issues: a user cannot log in, or an error message appears
Optimizing code: cleaning up illogical or unused code, making future maintenance easier
Cleaning up tables: deleting or moving large amounts of data to maintain performance
Implementing minor changes: to keep the application functionally up-to-date
This maintenance is aimed at preventing or quickly resolving disruptions for users and keeping the applications maintainable in the long term. If you skip this for a while, applications become slow and changes take longer and longer, simply because the code is harder for developers to understand, contains more superfluous ballast, and therefore becomes more prone to errors.
Implementing minor changes also falls under this type of maintenance. This not only keeps the application technically viable, but also ensures that the functionality aligns with what users need, even as those needs change.
It therefore pays to regularly clean up applications and update them to new requirements. If you do this with some regularity, maintenance remains manageable and clear. If you postpone it for too long, you will pay the price later: the maintenance becomes larger and takes much more time.
Maintenance of the OutSystems Platform
A question we often get: does the OutSystems platform also need maintenance, even though it runs in the cloud? For the new platform, ODC, the answer is: ‘a little’. ODC is cloud-native and always automatically runs on the latest version, which OutSystems takes care of. With O11, that story is different: it is essentially a server application running on AWS. OutSystems regularly releases new versions for it, which you have to roll out per environment. So yes, the platform also needs maintenance, but the focus here is on different things than with the applications:
Update to new OutSystems versions: of both the platform and the UI, so that your environment remains supported
Update Forge components: new versions of reusable functions
Implement new integration and security standards: to optimize performance
First of all, OutSystems regularly releases new versions of the O11 platform and of OutSystems UI. Our rule of thumb: update the O11 platform twice a year, and the UI four times a year. If you keep up with this, it's a job of just a few hours per environment, and you are always ready for new innovations. If you fall far behind, OutSystems may at some point force an upgrade in order to continue providing support. ODC, by the way, does not need separate platform updates, but it does need updates for the UI.
In addition, there are the Forge components, the public library with separate parts. New versions of these also come out from time to time to remain compatible with new platform and UI versions. Our advice: check these components for updates once or twice a year.
Finally, implementing new integration and security standards. In itself, this is separate from the rest of the environment, but every new version also brings new features that allow you to further optimize the performance of your environment. Think of REST versus SOAP, OAuth, or new ways to assign roles, for example in LifeTime or to user roles within the application.
Conclusion
We live in a world where updates and releases follow each other in rapid succession. And although OutSystems applications usually run in the cloud, they cannot continue to function without maintenance and upgrades, simply to keep up with technological developments. OutSystems, and the applications running on it, also cannot do without maintenance. Otherwise, they will eventually become slow, insecure, or crash, and then an expensive upgrade is needed to bring everything up to date again.
If you regularly update and clean up the applications and the platform, everything remains up-to-date, costs stay low, and the business can perform optimally. This keeps the time-to-market short, ensuring you are ready for the next software innovation at any moment. Ultimately, good maintenance delivers a long-lasting, great return-on-investment.
