Autoscale Processes in Appian

In today's business environment, companies of all sizes are concerned with speed and efficiency. Automation can free up your human workforce to focus on the most valuable tasks by delegating routine and predictable tasks to technology. As that automated workload rapidly increases, do you have the infrastructure to support it?

You do if you have Appian. We've built speed and efficiency into the runners that execute your high-volume processes. This page explains what autoscale can do, provides examples of when it's useful, and explains how you can apply it to your existing process models.

What is autoscale?

Autoscale is an Appian Cloud capability that dynamically adjusts process execution capacity based on demand. Specifically designed for high-volume, high-throughput automation, process autoscale delivers 10-100x the power without having to over-provision resources.

By default, all existing process models and any new processes are run without autoscale. You have the freedom to assess where autoscale would help and enable it for the appropriate processes in a workflow. When you enable the capability, the process is now autoscaled.

Benefits of autoscale

When automating critical business processes, you may realize that some of these workflows need high throughput and maximum resource flexibility.

Appian makes it possible to meet these use cases with high-performance features built with our proven and familiar process modeler. Let's go over some use cases and explore these features in depth.

High-throughput and high-volume automation

Your business may have workflows with demand that is consistently high compared to other processes. For example, you might be working to automate routing of new work requests to the appropriate team or to systems that can handle the request without a human actor.

To keep up during periods of high demand, you can enable autoscale on the process models that validate the work request and apply your organization's rules so it's assigned correctly. Then, teams are able to start work faster and with the confidence that they have the most up-to-date data to perform the work.

There may be a few types of work requests that need some human intervention, perhaps to verify data in a way that can't be automated. In this case, you can start a separate process for the human-in-the-loop tasks. These processes, run without autoscale enabled, are only needed as exceptions to the main, automated workflow.

Process orchestration

Just like Appian's data fabric makes it simple to bring disparate data together, autoscale lets you do the same for your workflows. You can gather and link previously siloed information in one environment, orchestrating the operation of external resources through a central workflow in Appian. This lets you optimize the use of those external systems and realize a greater return on investment.

When Appian is your application's back end, it can be the central data pipeline to create integrated workflows with far less effort and expert developer involvement. Connected system and integration objects let you build sophisticated system-to-system interactions in a low-code fashion. Then, you can use the process modeler to quickly visualize, build, and run your process at whatever scale your business needs.

Say you want to upgrade an application for managing customers' cell phone accounts. When a customer creates an account or updates their data through a web front end, you need to run business logic in separate internal systems to manage the customer's phone number, quantity of lines, and account with other service providers in the network. Using Appian as the back end lets you orchestrate all of this work in an easy-to-understand workflow and helps you see where further improvements can be made.

Let's say the app currently makes 750,000 requests per day to the back end. Autoscale ensures that the app could handle 100 times as many requests by increasing processing resources to handle the additional load.

When to use autoscale

Autoscale is best suited for high-throughput processes and supports the process model functionality that enables those use cases. By default, process models are run without autoscale, which enables the full range of smart services. However, processes that do not have autoscale enabled may limit your ability to scale up and meet your business needs over time.

Autoscale supports unattended automation, as well as human interaction through process start forms and user input tasks.

Data protection features for autoscale

Autoscale leverages Appian Cloud's enterprise-grade security features to protect your data and maintain compliance requirements. In addition, you can use autoscale with the following features:

• Autoscale is supported in Appian environments hosted in a dedicated Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).
• Autoscale data can be encrypted using Bring Your Own Key (BYOK).
• Enhanced Business Continuity (EBC) covers autoscale data to provide smoother recovery after a region-wide failure.
• Outbound VPN and PrivateLink connections are supported.

Enable autoscale for processes

To enable autoscale on a process model:

1. Open the process model you want to run with autoscale.
2. From the process modeler menu, select File > Properties.

3. Select the Use process autoscaling checkbox in the process's properties.

   

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4. Click OK.
5. From the process modeler menu, select File > Save & Publish.

Supported nodes

Once autoscale is enabled, the palette adjusts to show the nodes you can use in the process model.

The list of nodes and smart services shows which of these you can use in an autoscaled process.

Supported plug-ins

The following smart service plug-ins are compatible with autoscaled process model. Contact Appian Support if your process models require a plug-in not shown in this list.

Category	Plug-in
Services	Amazon S3 Utilities
Services	AWS Assume Role
Services	AWS OpenSearch
Services	AWS S3 Bucket Management
Services	Google AutoML Tables Connected System
Services	Google Cloud AutoML Connected System
Services	Google Cloud Storage Connected System
Services	Pinecone
Services	Textract
Systems	Appian FS Integration Solutions Plug-in
Systems	Appian Connected Systems - GenAI Tool- Data Generator
Systems	Automation Anywhere Connected System
Systems	Capture Image and Video Connected System
Systems	Encompass DevConnect Connected System
Systems	Gmail Connected System
Systems	Google Maps Connected System
Systems	Guidewire
Systems	MS Graph Utilities
Systems	Rich Text Editor Image Upload Connected System
Systems	UiPath Connected System
Systems	Zebra Printer Sender
Utilities	CDT Diff Utilities
Services	Execute Stored Procedure
Services	MySQL Dump To Document
Utilities	Bean Array Accessor Functions
Utilities	Dictionary Manipulation
Utilities	JSON Validator
Utilities	YAML Utilities
Date and Time	calendar-io
Date and Time	Cron Utilities
Date and Time	Date and Time Utilities
Management	Box
Management	Box Sign
Management	Capture Image and Video
Management	Excel Aspose Utility
Management	Excel Financial Functions
Management	Log Reader
Management	Microsoft Document Editor
Management	Microsoft Document Editor Helper Servlets and Functions
Management	Online Office Functions
Management	Redline Comparison
Management	Text File Utilities
Management	Update MS Office Document Metadata
AI	AzureOpenAI
AI	GenAI Tool - Document Summarizer
AI	GenAI Tool- Entity Extractor
AI	OpenAI
AI	OpenAI ChatGPT
Email and Communication	Microsoft Teams
Functions	Big Numbers Functions
Functions	Cryptographic Hash Functions
Functions	Excel Financial Functions
Email and Communication	Alerts Utilities
Email and Communication	Communication Chat
Email and Communication	Email Reply Parser
Email and Communication	MSGraph Mail Poller
Login and Security	Get Last Successful Login Details
Login and Security	People Functions
Login and Security	JWT
Management	Calculate Unused Variables
Management	Get Processes By Node Status
Management	Get and Set External Process Variables
Management	Process Display Functions
Management	Process History
Management	Process Management Services
Management	Self Service Process Unarchive (SSPU)
Management	Task Management Smart Services
Reporting and Analytics	Business Value Framework (BVF)
Reporting and Analytics	Collab Statistics
Reporting and Analytics	End-User Reporting Charts
Reporting and Analytics	Microsoft PowerBI
Reporting and Analytics	Microsoft PowerBI (Auth Code)
Reporting and Analytics	Microsoft PowerBI (Password Grant)
Text and String Utilities	Base64 Expressions
Text and String Utilities	HTML/XML Markup Generation Functions
Text and String Utilities	IP Address Utilities
Text and String Utilities	Levenshtein
Text and String Utilities	Regular Expression Functions
Text and String Utilities	Similarity
Text and String Utilities	Text Utilities
Utilities	Appian Introspect Capability
Utilities	Framework Tools

Next steps

If you are ready to start building with autoscale, check out these pages for more information:

• Ways to Start a Process explains the different ways you can run a process with autoscale enabled.
• Monitoring Autoscaled Processes shows you how to use the Autoscaled Process Activity tab for troubleshooting.
• Autoscale Patterns and Best Practices provides guidance for optimizing your autoscaled processes.

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