Extendable Applications: The best of both worlds

In a previous blog post we wrote about customisation vs configuration and discussed two approaches that are often adopted when developing enterprise software.  

The premise of the blog post was that it is much easier to upgrade an enterprise system that has limited or no customisation, because changes to the core of the software can lead to unexpected challenges in the parts of the application that have been customised to fit a specific customer. 

The best of both worlds 

However, configuration has an important limitation too, as all possible configuration options need to be taken into account when building configurable software, which often leads to either inflexible software due to a lack of configuration options, or too many options that make the software too difficult to configure.  

Thankfully, there is an in-between approach which enables extendibility for the application. With this approach, the standard software can be extended with other functionality that can be added to the system with very limited and well defined dependencies – which ensures that an engineer working on the core of the application knows exactly where in the system they need to tread carefully when applying these changes.  

Aside from upgrade complexities, another drawback of customisation is dependency on vendor resources. Often seen as merely a customer issue, this also hinders the vendor in its ability to scale its operations. With an extendable application that has been properly documented, this drawback is no longer applicable, as plugins can be developed without access to the source code of the core of the application, thus allowing any third party to develop plugins. 

Axon: Extending the core 

To fully enable our clients to be as agile as possible, and to support niche solutions and customised operational approaches, we have built our standard Axon platform with an open pluggable architecture, extending its shelf life indefinitely, and ensuring it can seamlessly and effortlessly integrate the technologies of tomorrow into your production ecosystems of today. 

Work smarter with Axon core extensions 

At Keylane, we believe technology should empower our clients to be the best versions of themselves. We develop solutions not just for today, but for tomorrow. Solutions that are designed, built and nurtured by the very best IT specialists, developers and creative minds. Together, we share a thirst for innovative solutions, and a hunger for client success stories. Stories we help you grow, but that belong to you. Our approach is very much an outside-in approach. We start by looking at the challenges from our clients’ perspectives, then we develop solutions to address them.  

Read our Axon: Extending the core brochure here