Appian strongly recommends to use a shared platform for all users and applications. This helps ensure that your business can scale effectively and efficiently while maintaining superior digital experience for your customers. Listed below are some of the compelling factors in favor of setting up a shared Appian platform within an enterprise:
In certain rare scenarios, customers are forced to opt out of this approach and go with a segregated installation instead. This document compares the two setups and lists out some of the exceptional scenarios when customers take the segregated installation route.
In a Segregated Installation setup, each of the applications are hosted on their respective platform and a separate Appian url is provided to the users to login into the separate Appian interfaces.
In a Shared Platform setup, each of the enterprise applications is hosted on the single Appian instance, and users of all applications use a unique Appian url.
The table below is a comparative analysis of the two installation approaches in light of some of the influencing factors:
#
Influencing Factor
Segregated Installation
Shared Platform
Decision Drivers
Details
1
Enterprise Agility(Definition)
As customers continue to increase Appian adoption across the enterprise, a Shared platform helps build synergies across different enterprise functions, generating personalized insights and thereby faster response to outside situations.
2
Overall TCO
Significant time & resource investment, along with redundant effort is required for performing server maintenance and management across multiple environments.
3
End User Productivity
For application spanning multiple Lines of Business, user productivity is significantly better if all information is available in a single Appian system.
4
Data & User Security (Compartmentalization)
It is not uncommon for customers to compartmentalize the enterprise systems as a risk mitigation measure for issues that can potentially arise due to data confidentiality or a security breach.
5
Geographic Scaling & Expansion Costs
Expansion to new geographies, markets, and product lines can be accomplished faster with an integrated platform.
6
Change Management & Platform Governance
Some investment is needed upfront while devising an enterprise strategy on a Shared platform. Also, ongoing collaboration is required between IT & Business leadership to ensure successful adoption of the platform.
7
Different Non-Functional Requirements
Not all enterprise applications are expected to fit in the same category of non-functional requirements. For example, certain mission critical applications may have strict uptime requirements while a simple survey application may not.
Advanced infrastructure configuration comes at a higher cost and this may not be commensurate to justify investment for certain applications
8
Trend Reporting and Decisioning
Reporting and thus decision making is significantly enhanced and expedited if the data aggregation is done across records residing on the Shared platform
9
Reuse and Collaboration
Well channelized team dynamics can lead to significant cost savings if common code can be reused across multiple applications on the platform.
Teams working on the same platform environment tend to have better understanding and cohesion leading to better collaboration and thus better ROI.
The table below lists out some of the exception scenarios when to consider a Segregated Appian installation.
Scenario
Key Factors
Customer has a mission critical application with very high transaction volumes and 24x7 site availability with virtually no tolerance for downtime. The application is so critical that it requires its own dedicated hardware and environment.
High daily business volumes
High availability
Very high resource utilization
Customer whose industry is heavily regulated and who is required to comply with rules, regulations, controls and strict processes related to their data/security/workflow
Data Security Standards & Policies
Compliance & Regulation (Internal/External)
Geographic Challenges
Applications deal with secured/sensitive data and unsecured/publicly available data. The risks of accidentally exposing data to the wrong users is a risk that must be mitigated and avoided at all cost.
Data & User Security
Applications have distinct and non-overlapping user sets, data sets, or processes, with little to no potential benefits accruing from aggregate analysis, process standardization, or economies of scale
Distinct and separate user communities
No data requirements in common
High degree of domain specialization
Discreet and independent process flows