Autoscale Processes in Appian

Overview

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. Let's explore what autoscale can do, some examples of when it's useful, and 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, unattended process models, and autoscale 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 and attended task capabilities. However, processes that do not have autoscale enabled may limit your ability to scale up and meet your business needs over time.

Autoscale lets you overcome this obstacle, but some process models do not need to run a very high scale. These are generally models with human interaction as part of the workflow, so you should continue running these without autoscaling.

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.

How to enable autoscale

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 Autoscale checkbox in the process's properties.

   

   Scroll or drag to pan · ⌘+/⌘− to zoom · Esc to close

4. From the process modeler menu, select 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
Cloud Services	Amazon S3 Utilities
Cloud Services	AWS Assume Role
Cloud Services	AWS OpenSearch
Cloud Services	AWS S3 Bucket Management
Cloud Services	Google AutoML Tables Connected System
Cloud Services	Google Cloud AutoML Connected System
Cloud Services	Google Cloud Storage Connected System
Cloud Services	Pinecone
Cloud Services	Textract
Connected Systems	Appian FS Integration Solutions Plug-in
Connected Systems	Appian Connected Systems - GenAI Tool- Data Generator
Connected Systems	Automation Anywhere Connected System
Connected Systems	Capture Image and Video Connected System
Connected Systems	Encompass DevConnect Connected System
Connected Systems	Gmail Connected System
Connected Systems	Google Maps Connected System
Connected Systems	Guidewire
Connected Systems	MS Graph Utilities
Connected Systems	Rich Text Editor Image Upload Connected System
Connected Systems	UiPath Connected System
Connected Systems	Zebra Printer Sender
Data Services	Archive PVs to RDBMS Smart Service
Data Utilities	CDT Diff Utilities
Data Services	Execute Stored Procedure
Data Services	MySQL Dump To Document
Data Utilities	Bean Array Accessor Functions
Data Utilities	Dictionary Manipulation
Data Utilities	JSON Validator
Data Utilities	Sort Utilities
Data Utilities	YAML Utilities
Date and Time	calendar-io
Date and Time	Calendar Functions Plug-in
Date and Time	Cron Utilities
Date and Time	Date and Time Utilities
Date and Time	Generate Gregorian Calendar
Date and Time	Um Al Qura Calendar Conversion
Document Management	Box
Document Management	Box Sign
Document Management	Capture Image and Video
Document Management	Document PDF Viewer
Document Management	Excel Aspose Utility
Document Management	Excel Financial Functions
Document Management	Log Reader
Document Management	Microsoft Document Editor
Document Management	Microsoft Document Editor Helper Servlets and Functions
Document Management	Online Office Functions
Document Management	Redline Comparison
Document Management	Text File Utilities
Document Management	Update MS Office Document Metadata
Generative AI	AzureOpenAI
Generative AI	GenAI Tool - Document Summarizer
Generative AI	GenAI Tool- Entity Extractor
Generative AI	OpenAI
Generative AI	OpenAI ChatGPT
Messaging and Communication	Microsoft Teams
Mathematical Functions	Big Numbers Functions
Mathematical Functions	Cryptographic Hash Functions
Mathematical Functions	Excel Financial Functions
Messaging and Communication	Alerts Utilities
Messaging and Communication	Communication Chat
Messaging and Communication	Email Reply Parser
Messaging and Communication	MSGraph Mail Poller
People and Security	Get Last Successful Login Details
People and Security	Login Information Parser
People and Security	People Functions
People and Security	JWT
Process Management	Calculate Unused Variables
Process Management	Get Processes By Node Status
Process Management	Get and Set External Process Variables
Process Management	Process Display Functions
Process Management	Process History
Process Management	Process Management Services
Process Management	Self Service Process Unarchive (SSPU)
Process Management	Set Task Display Name
Process 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
Text and String Utilities	Validate Encrypted Text
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.

Feedback