MX is a mature enterprise platform. Including a modern web-based desktop client, offline capable mobile app (Apple and Android), extensive, proven systems integration capabilities, standards compliant and real enterprise scalability. MX can utilized as a rented cloud appliance or a fully installed enterprise server on your own hardware (of any flavor).
Client Technologies
Desktop
MX utilizes a web-based client user interface. It aims to deliver traditional desktop-grade functionality and performance through a zero-install web platform.
MX is compatible with all mainstream browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
MX is a pure HTML/CSS/JS client and uses no apps, plugins or any other elements which would require client access privileges or would present a security issue.
The base MX Client also meets WAI-ARIA standards for accessibility and we strive to maintain this standard in all product and customer driven updates to the software.
Using the latest development technologies such as react, react-native and open-GL to delivery stunning, highly user friendly displays.
Mobile Apps
The MX:Mobile application is designed from the outset for touch-enabled devices. It can be deployed in two forms simultaneously, a full native app which has to be installed on the device, or a pure-web application which provides zero-install and immediate accessibility.
MX:Mobile is fully internationalized and allows multi-lingual operation with the simple creation of language packs (English and Puerto-Rican Spanish are deployed by default).
Native Mobile Applications
MX:Mobile is currently available as an Android Application via the Google Play store and direct download .apk where requested and on Apple devices via the app store. It has been proven in the battle-hardened world of distaster response, being utilized in every major Hurricane and Typhoon from 2018 including recent deployments in Florida and Puerto Rico for Ian and Fiona and in 2023 was successfully used by a multi-agency taskforce responding to Super-Typhoon Mawar.
The native mobile application allows MX:Mobile to be used in fully offline mode. Using our unique technology to allow work and asset management in areas of low/unreliable and impossible network connectivity.
The native application allows continuous location tracking of the device, even while the app is not forefront on the device, or network connectivity is unavailable. This provides full use of the MX:Spatial and MX:Workforce Management extensions for Mobile.
Mobile Web App
MX:Mobile is also available as a zero-install web app. Compatible with all touch-enabled devices with a web browser (inc Android, Apple, Microsoft and other devices) this provides all the same MX:Mobile functionality as with the Native App, with the exlusion of full no-signal operation and limitations to location tracking. Due to the offline functionality built into the core of the application, a large amount of offline functionality is still available and enhances usage in intermittent/low signal areas.
Server Technologies
MX:Enterprise
MX:Enterprise is our core server platform. It is named “Enterprise” due to it’s enterprise-grade architecture and capabilities. Designed from the outset for scalability and performance and utilizing a standards-compliant services based architecture, MX:Enterprise offers flexibility and capability for any size of business. Whether an installation environment is a commercial cloud configuration, or more traditional corporate datacenter, MX can be configured to match.
ProceMX preferred deployment method is a Microsoft Azure cloud installation. This will be fully managed and supported by proceMX offering a full service option to allow you to concentrate on business needs and not IT/Support headaches.
Core Architecture
ME:Enterprise is built on an enterprise java platform and implements the latest standards from Jakarta EE and Eclipse MicroProfile. This provides a class-leading n-tier enterprise web application architecture.
At a simple block-diagram level, the fundamental server components are:
- Database. Providing standard database functionality. The choice of database used can vary between clients and is flexible due to our open-standards based architecture. Common deployments are Microsoft SQLServer (both Azure cloud and server based), MySQL and PostgreSQL. This open choice of database server is caveated by performance differences required for the extremely complex spatial data management required by our advanced geospatial analytics engine. Due to extreme performance tuning in this situation ProceMX may recommend a specific database service which meets the client needs.
- Web and Application Server. Often deployed as a single-process package, MX uses a state of the art enterprise server combining web and application tiers. This tier encompasses all of the functional servers and services required for any MX installation, including Analytics, Systems Integration, Geospatial Intelligence and Spatial Feature Servers. This tier is designed to be heavyweight in functionality, while lightweight in system demands.
- (Optional) Web Server. The web tier can be further separated for scalability and/or security requirements. This allows further separation from client (and possible penetration attempts) to the application and data functions.
Scalability
MX is designed to be scalable from the outset. While being extremely efficient with resources out-of-the-box, the Enterprise Java architecture underpinning our software is designed with large and dynamic scalability in mind. Drawing from our experiences in Defense, Telecomms and Investment Banking technologies, MX can utilize class-leading clustering, failover, hot-deployment and load balancing without significant pre-planning. Each tier of the architecture can be scaled:
- The database tier can be scaled using enterprise features in commerical databases such as extended distributed transactions, automatic mirroring and availability groups.
- The application server can be scaled using automatic clustering of the application tier. Multiple instances of the core server can be installed on any number of disparate pieces of hardware and added to the cluster as and when required to increase capacity on either a long-term or ad-hoc basis. This also allows hot standby and failover if the primary server ceases to respond.
- The web server can be separated from the application tier and run in a multi-server load balancing and redundancy configuration. This allows for improved client experiences with improved responsiveness while improving fault tolerance and security.
Deployment
MX:Enterprise is built on a “run anywhere” principle. The base footprint of MX:Enterprise can be very small, requiring as little as 1Gb RAM and 500Mb disk space. The largest drivers behind deployment environment capabilities are client numbers and client data volume/complexity. MX:Enterprise has been installed and proven to run on a Raspberry Pi device with no additional hardware and a 512Mb micro-SD card for storage.
Deployment Drivers
- Disk space. There are 2 areas of requirement for disk space. Firstly, database storage and secondly raw file storage. Database storage is driven by the volume of client data and storage duration. As an example, a large client with 4000 users with over 10years of MX:Work Management and MX:Spatial use consumes approximately 100Gb database space. Alternatively a client with intensive field use of MX:Asset Management requires a lot of photographic storage space and uses approx 20Gb per annum of additional space. The space requirement is entirely driven by customer data, not core software.
- Memory and processor requirements. Memory and processor usage are linked to the complexity of analytics and the volume of data being processed. A current installation of MX:Enterprise which uses advanced geospatial analytics over a dataset comprising millions of records has a high memory footprint, with the core server running optimally with around 16Gb RAM available and a similar amount available to the database. Alternatively with simpler processing and even in the face of high concurrent users, under half of this amount is required to run a “standard” installation.
Server Technology
MX:Enterprise is server-agnostic and currently deployed on both Linux and Windows Server environments in cloud and client sites.
Systems Integration
proceMX have a long history of systems integration expertise. The first iterations of MX were designed to integrate to existing work and asset management systems and integrate the data from a disparate range of corporate systems. This was so effective the original MX deployment from 2008 is still in production today. Over 15 years later that system has evolved alongside the MX platform to integrate to almost 40 internal and external data sources. Employing advanced techniques for large volume, high performance ETL operations we have yet to come across a system or technology which MX cannot integrate with. A very small sample of techniques and technologies would include flat files, csv files, excel files, shape files, email based, sms based, direct database connection to oracle, sqlserver, db2, web services, REST, XML, JSON, message-oriented-middleware, tibco, MQ series, SAP, Salesforce, push, pull, shared folders, scheduled tasks, event driven tasks and so on. ProceMX will eagerly take on your systems integration challenge.
Cloud Deployment
MX:Enterprise is easily deployed on cloud platforms. With instances currently running in production on Microsoft Azure (for both customer specific installs and ProceMX’ own multi-tenant installation) and having been proven on AWS, ProceMX believe that the flexible architecture of MX will be able to fit in with whatever your cloud provider of choice is.
Deployment Responsibility
ProceMX are happy to deploy and manage MX as a fully managed service utilizing Microsoft Azure Cloud. We can offer MX in either a client-specific instance where extremes of performance and security are required, or as part of a shared multi-tenant installation. In the case of a shared mutil-tenant installation, MX has been designed with the security and access control necessary to ensure clients are completely unaware of one-another’s use and no “data-bleed” occurs.
Where the clients security or technical requirements demand, we can assist with the installation to their own secure cloud provider, and of course on-site client specific installations. Full service server management is available regardless of the deployment environment.
License Requirements
In order to deploy MX, ProceMX have no mandatory 3rd party license requirements. The most common 3rd party license used when deploying MX is that for the database server (for example Microsoft SQL Server), which is a result of client preference. In the case where a client choses to self-host the software, they are responsible for any database server license provision to allow the use of their preferred database.
In the case where ProceMX provide our fully inclusive cloud-hosted service model, this will include any required database and other cloud hosting licenses.