Mission-critical systems pose challenges regarding the scalability, reliability, security, and privacy of information. 

Mission-critical
development is one of the four pillars of GeneXus 17, and the subject I will address in this post.

In case you haven’t read them yet, below are the other three articles about the pillars of GeneXus:

Everything you need to know about GeneXus 17 (part 1 | Design & multi-experience)

Everything you need to know about GeneXus 17 (part 2 | Integration & evolution)

Everything you need to know about GeneXus 17 (part 4 | Expanded DevOps)

From the very beginning GeneXus was designed to create mission-critical solutions. This has also been our focus in 2021, because creating solutions of this type requires not only many tools, but also generating for multiple platforms, deploying on multiple technologies, and integrating the entire solution with multiple other solutions and technologies.

In this regard, we have worked mainly on two aspects: The first one is security
, a core aspect related to each of the components of your solution. Secondly, we have strived to support and simplify the evolution
of system architectures.

Mission-critical systems and security

The first item—security—involves continuous efforts to improve the quality of the code generated from the libraries that we provide with the generated code. 

In addition to our own libraries, we have also updated third-party libraries. By upgrading to the latest version of GeneXus, you get these maximum security benefits in your solutions.

In the GeneXus Access Manager (GAM)
, which is the core component for modeling the security of your solution, we have added facilities so that your users don’t have to remember passwords. We are in line with world trends in security by offering
One-Time Password (OTP) features and by further securing your solutions with multi-factor authentication (2FA)
.

In addition, GeneXus now provides facilities to secure microservices
scenarios by supporting specific protocols for the security of services such as SSO/Rest and Secure Service Token.

Regarding Identity Providers
, if your company has an identity provider for the different solutions and it is also generated with GeneXus, now you can have it delegate identity to a third party. In this way, you don’t need to host your users’ passwords and can delegate this to Google, LinkedIn, or other identity providers.

We have also added support for a new protocol for these providers and entities: Open ID Connect.
In this way, GeneXus supports the world’s most widely used protocols for integrating with vendors, offering a large choice of vendors to integrate into GeneXus solutions.

Continuing with the topic of security, the GeneXus IDE now includes the new Security Scanner
, a tool that performs static code analysis. It can be run on your knowledge bases to analyze the code that you write and make an early assessment of an application’s security risks. This Security Scanner can be used in the IDE and within the DevOps process; that is, along continuous integration
lines, automating this aspect of security as well and ensuring the safe evolution of your system.

Since application security is becoming increasingly important and there are tools to strengthen it or to help detect possible vulnerabilities, I encourage you to find out more about these processes in the videos below:

DevSecOps
Redefining the foundations of security with Static Code Analysis

2FA, one-time password, OpenID:
All about the new authentication schemes

Evolution of system architectures

Now let’s talk about the architecture of your solutions and the improvements in GeneXus 17 that allow for the evolution of your systems and architectures.

We experienced this need while developing the Coronavirus project. First, we had to deploy an initial solution in just a few days, and we did that in a monolith. A few weeks later, the system started to grow, and we needed to move to a miniservice scheme. Why? Because we wanted to deploy different components at different times. Finally, due to the new requirements of vaccination systems, this year we added this part to the solution. In fact, this module was based on a microservice
scheme.

Evolving architectures in step with system evolution is vital, so we at GeneXus decided to add facilities to ensure the success of Mission-Critical applications. 

This and other key issues are addressed in the videos
Creating mission-critical applications
and
Modeling sophisticated architectures and mission-critical systems with GeneXus
.

Finally, I invite you to attend these free webinars on security!

* 16 November 

GAM GeneXus Access Manager: Authentication & Authorization

Many applications require systems that can authenticate and authorize users and objects. To manage these needs, we have the GeneXus Access Manager (GAM), a security module that works for web and mobile applications.

With GAM, security checks are performed automatically. In this session, we will explain its most relevant features and answer your questions in real time.

* 18 November

Security (DevSecOps, SCA, security of mission-critical systems)

The shortage of cybersecurity professionals has driven the use of increased automation in IT security processes.

According to the consulting firm Gartner, “automated security tasks can be performed much faster, in a scalable way and with fewer errors.”

Building and maintaining secure solutions automatically is part of what GeneXus offers.

In this online session, our panel of experts will answer questions on how to implement secure applications with GeneXus.

Related articles:

Everything you need to know about GeneXus 17 (part 1 | Design & multi-experience)

Everything you need to know about GeneXus 17 (part 2 | Integration & evolution)

Everything you need to know about GeneXus 17 (part 4 | Expanded DevOps)

You may also be interested in these websites and articles:

GAM

Security Scanner

How can GeneXus help you with Low-Code?