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Overview

Bizagi Studio empowers development teams for intelligent process automation fulfilling business requirements with agile results, and focusing on your business. Through features that help automation of processes, and a set of different applications, features, and functionalities offered by Bizagi, developers control the business logic, enhance the user interface, and integrate systems in the Development environment.

 

In previous on-premises versions, 11.2.5 or below, you can work collaboratively using on-premises resources, where all the underlying infrastructure related to your Development environment are managed and run by you. This option is usually very costly and demands resources for its management. A second option is using a Studio Cloud Services subscription, in which Bizagi takes care of your infrastructure in the cloud, offering services so globally distributed teams can work collaboratively.

 

There is a list of features that are applicable to on-premises projects because they are built for administration of resources rather than features that you can use in a process. In a Studio Cloud Services subscription, the administration of all resources is managed by Bizagi, which means that you no longer need those features. When you are working using a Studio Cloud Services subscription in the cloud, you do not have to worry about features that apply to on-premises projects.

 

You can migrate from on-premises projects to Studio Cloud Services as soon as you purchase a plan. In this scenario, you should review features which are intended to work on on-premises projects. This article presents all the features that apply to on-premises projects and points to consider when developing using Studio Cloud Services.

 

Features that apply to on-premises projects

Some features and configuration parameters that you find in Bizagi Studio are built to manage and complement on-premises components. For example, features like the Bizagi database encryption, make sense for on-premises setups, where the customer is entirely in charge of the technological stack (managing the database server and its access, operating systems, redundancy options, etc.), and may rely on this feature to choose to encrypt sensitive/confidential information.

 
Such configuration is not targeted for, nor taken to Studio Cloud Services, given that for the cloud Bizagi already manages encryption for data at rest. Encryption for data at rest is in place with Studio Cloud Services, and this is taken care of by the cloud expert operations team personnel, rendering customer data secure in terms of integrity, privacy, and availability.

 

Configuration Options

The following options apply to on-premises projects:

•Bizagi database encryption.

•Operational Data Store.

•Query Engine ODS.

•Scheduler options (environment configuration).

•Email integration (in SCS is done by Bizagi when the environment is provisioned.

•Tracing configuration

 

Considerations about using Studio Cloud Services as your cloud Development environment

When working on Studio Cloud Services, you can run the Work Portal in two ways:

•Using the Studio Cloud Services cloud infrastructure. You can run as many portals as the number of packages you have purchased. Refer to Studio Cloud Services.

•Using local resources. In this scenario, you have to install all the necessary infrastructure to run the Work Portal. Refer to Studio installation.

If you run the Work Portal using the Studio Cloud Services cloud infrastructure, you need to consider the following:

 

1. Running the Work Portal

With one purchased package, you can run one project in the cloud. Additionally, always see the latest changes done by your co-developers, you have to execute the Work Portal clicking the Run button in Bizagi Studio.

 

2. Work Portal Authentication

The Work Portal in Studio Cloud Services supports the following authentication types:

•SAML 2.0

•OAuth (with OpenID extension)

•Bizagi

•LDAP (this requires a VPN)

Other authentication types not listed above cannot be used in Studio Cloud Services.

 

 

3. VPN

Virtual Private Networks are supported for SCS.  Whenever the applications you want to integrate with, do not offer a cloud-ready architecture and use protocols other than HTTP/HTTPS, you can use a VPN to perform Unit tests for integrations with those systems.

 

Features that are configured in Bizagi Studio and require to retrieve information in the configuration wizard from an endpoint, are:

 

•ECM

•Web Services

 

 

4. Integration with other systems and services

When you configure integrations in Bizagi Studio using Studio Cloud Services, and you want to test them using your cloud Work Portal, you must consider the following:

 

4.1 ECM

If you are developing an integration with ECM systems using the Bizagi out-of-the-box connector, as explained here, your CMIS compliant system must be cloud-ready (published and accessible via HTTPS through the internet). If your ECM system does not comply with this, you need a VPN.

 

4.2 Web services and connectors

If you plan to configure and test invocation of web services (SOAP or RESTful) or connectors using the Work Portal in Studio Cloud Services, the external system has to expose those services to be accessible via the internet. That is, those services must be cloud-ready. If your external system services are not cloud-ready, you need a VPN.

 

4.3 SMTP

Acquiring a Studio Cloud Services plan allows the use of Bizagi’s cloud e-mail service to send notifications. This service is available for the project that you run on the cloud. No further configuration is needed in SMTP for your cloud environment.

Alternatively, you may also choose to provide your own SMTP, that MUST be cloud-ready.

 

When relying on Bizagi's cloud e-mail service, bear in mind that each email cannot be larger that 19MB, and attachments cannot exceed 7MB. If the email exceeds these values, it will not be sent.

 

4.4 Email Integration

Bizagi features a functionality to complete tasks via e-mail. Refer to Completing tasks via E-mail. When using this option with Studio Cloud Services, you need an Exchange service mailbox. Other protocols different from Exchange, such as POP3 or IMAP, do not apply to this functionality.

 

4.5 Integration with other databases

Consider the following when integrating with your databases through Data Virtualization and Data Replication:

•Integrating with Oracle databases or other engines different than on-premises SQL Server instances, is not supported.

•External Database must be accessed over the internet and be cloud-ready, in configuration and runtime.

•Data Virtualization and Data Replication need a VPN.

•If you use a VPN for Data Virtualization and Data Replication, use this feature wisely due to performance considerations.

•The Test provider option is not available in in SCS.

 
Access to an external database over the internet (from Bizagi PaaS), inherently depends upon factors which are beyond Bizagi's control, such as higher latency in data transmission, fluctuations, interference, and congestion affecting the speed of the channel, the quality of the networks used during transmission, etc. Using this feature wisely means that you have to analyze your application and assess your use cases thoroughly so that you can determine if they can sustain the performance. Most often, working on information of one record is okay; while fetching multiple records and working in them may not give a good user experience.

 

4.6 Component libraries

Although component libraries are supported in Studio Cloud Services (to be deployed anytime on Automation services), recall that Bizagi cloud services, including Studio Cloud Services, is built for scalability. Cloud computing resources are made available on-demand as elastic resources, so, point-to-point integrations which demand the installation of a component in a specific location are not a best practice. Additionally, you have no direct access to any folder or database located within the cloud infrastructure managed by Bizagi.

 

If you have no other option with integration types offered by Bizagi, and you develop a component library, consider that components must be self-contained (i.e, all libraries needed by a component must be uploaded via the component library). This means that a component may not rely on drivers, DLLs, files in general, or a connectivity setup that needs to be installed separately into the local machine.

 

4.7 OData Layer

External system invoking OData services have to be done using public channels such as the internet. If your external system is not cloud-ready, you need to use a VPN.

 

4.8 LDAP synchronization

You can use an LDAP system for two purposes. Authentication of the Work Portal, and synchronization of users. Synchronization of users is available for Studio Cloud Services using a VPN. Therefore, you can see the LDAP configuration node, accessed from the Security module in the expert view only if you purchase a VPN.

 

5. UI extensibility and Work portal customizations

Widgets are supported and highly encouraged for enhancing the user interface. Performing customizations that modify the files, that are shipped in with Bizagi (such as JS, HTML or CSS overrides and modifications) directly must be coordinated with our support team with a notification in advanced using the ticket platform. Please share with the support team what you intend to do before actually requesting the modifications.

 
You may modify aspects of Bizagi Work Portal through the theme builder or out-of-the-box features in general, but remember that with your subscription to Studio Cloud Services, you have access to a team of Bizagi experts who take care of all infrastructure and services, and its related IT tasks involving provisioning, maintenance and tuning, and general technical support (includes 24x7 monitoring). Thus, you as a customer do not need a DBA, platform admins or other IT-related staff.

 

6. Deploying from Studio Cloud Services to Automation Services

In Studio Cloud Services you are able to work collaboratively in multiple projects in the same subscription. This permits to work on projects used as sandboxes for test or proof of concept purposes. Nevertheless, in Automation Services you can run one project per subscription. When you are deploying from Studio Cloud Services to Automation Services, you cannot deploy different projects in the same Automation subscription. Make sure that you choose properly the project that you want to keep deploying in your cloud-based test or production environments.

 

7. Performing a Studio version upgrade

As part of Bizagi's continuous improvement, new versions are periodically released with new features and fixes. To upgrade your version of Studio Cloud Services, visit your subscription's Build page and download the latest applicable Studio version.

 

Summary of considerations

The following table sums up the features not applicable to Studio Cloud Services and considerations when you develop an application using our cloud service.

 

Last Updated 12/18/2024 3:44:05 PM