Low-Code Development: Why it is a Good Idea for Enterprise Apps
A quick look around the modern development market and you will see that low code platforms are quickly gaining traction, thanks to how much it can ease the app development process. And, whether we talk about business users — who are creating the app by themselves or simplifying the development process for their development team by automating manual processes, low-code development is making it easier for the creation of flexible apps to get specific tasks done. Of course, there is much more to the phenomenon of low code development.
With the use of a variety of no-code software development platforms, the stakeholders in the organization can turn business and IT ideas into fully functional applications within mere hours.
So, let us start with some of the key features of a low-code platform:
1. Cross-platform functionality: Given that the market is divided among different OS platforms, it is imperative to streamline the development process. This can be achieved via the build once, run everywhere philosophy and for that, you need cross-platform functionality. You get the idea with this where we are going with this, yes? Yep, the right low-code platform can and should offer this functionality.
2. Security: Any digital entity must also be secure; this holds for low-code platforms as well, of course. Thankfully, most of the modern crop of low-code platforms in the market fare robustly well in the security department, allowing developers to amply protect their apps from risks.
3. Reusability: Provided you pick the right low-code platform, you can gain immensely with just off-the-shelf functionalities as well. Case in point: reusability; such platforms help developers save the effort of creating new modules every time. Instead, they can use pre-configured modules, functionalities, etc. Since these modules include standard core functions necessary for different apps, these modules along with plug-ins, apps, etc., can be reused to accelerate the development process.
Time to see precisely what kind of digital offerings can one create with low-code platforms:
1. Microservices: Microservices help companies in myriad ways such as via autonomy for teams, high levels of scalability, etc. These independently deployable apps can also help break down monoliths. So, leverage low code platforms to speed up the development of microservices apps to achieve better cross-functional collaboration and countless other such benefits.
2. Customer portals: A self-service web portal for customers is a must-have these days for processes such as requesting a price quote, bill payments, etc. A low code development process in this context can help immensely by not only addressing the issues one would face with conventional development but also by enabling companies to reuse UIs for use across different devices and for different purposes.
3. IoT-based apps: An experienced developer can easily leverage the low-code development approach to seamlessly integrate IoT platforms with their apps, be it a web app or a mobile app. The IoT data thus gained from such platforms can be transformed into actionable insights to offer end users a variety of services such as live traffic updates. Companies can also use the insights to drive better decisions for their businesses.
Now, let us also take a look at some of the top low-code platforms available in the market.
1. Google App Builder
2. Zoho Creator
3. Appian
As you can see, there are plenty of benefits to be gained from the use of a low code development approach to build robust apps for a business. However, the success of such low code application development will greatly depend on the platform you use for creating such apps. Hence, the aforementioned choices help you make an informed choice. For all else, you can always hire a trusted expert in the market to help you navigate this process.
