6 Reasons Why Businesses are aPaaS-Sionate About App Development

2016 is a year where we are seeing a lot of changes in enterprise technology, but one technology that is expected to flourish, is Application Platform as a Service (aPaaS) technology.  An aPaaS platform provides the ability to build applications, provision application software instantly, scale applications on-demand and integrate applications with other services. As time goes on, it will make sense for most companies to move at least part of their infrastructure to some form of cloud computing, because it is increasingly seen as a secure, and affordable tool for businesses of all sizes. As a response to this, there is an abundance of Application Platform as a Service providers that are emerging with innovative programs that are giving businesses more control over application development. Here are the six main reasons for enterprises to adopt these next-gen development tools.

Low- Code, No-Code, No Problem! Low-code solutions are bringing the ability to develop apps and tools to businesses whose budget may not afford a front-end development team and as a result, low-code development platforms are gaining popularity. Named in Gartner’s 2016 Application-as-a-Service Magic Quadrant Report, Vendor, kintone, offers an application platform that allows users to build custom enterprise applications with no coding required. Applications can then be instantly and securely deployed to internal teams via the kintone iOS and Android mobile app container. These types of high-productivity visual development environments that let new or experienced developers generate optimized code, while enabling complete “under the hood” control over capabilities and code.

Reduced Time to Benefit- With aPaaS, vendors provide out-of-box, hit the ground running solutions with little time required spent installing software on your systems, which means very little downtime from purchase to use. Businesses can get initiate and shortly thereafter, launch app creations within the first few days of training, unlike traditional business process management suites. Forrester, the influential research and advisory firm, describe how aPaaS technologies are going to be a must have for everyday business in the future, in this year’s Forrester Wave: Low-Code Development Platforms, 2016 report:

“Speed is crucial in introducing new disruptive products, engaging and responding to customers across different channels, and adapting existing services based on shifting competitive drivers. This relentless focus on “digital speed” is forcing application development and delivery leaders to reach for new approaches and platforms that enable delivery of new apps in days and weeks, instead of months.”

With aPaaS, the time and cost associated with large scale software deployment is greatly reduced, as time once spent installing and configuring your new software can now be used putting that software to work.

4. Advent of “The Citizen Developer”- As Low-code platforms require less training, and coding experience, users from all business divisions will find use of low code platforms more accessible, resulting in more employees contributing to app development. “Closing the gap” between businesses who can afford a development team, versus businesses who are looking to digitalize and innovate on a budget. One of the greatest features if the service, is that aPaaS empowers “The Citizen Developer”. Vendor, kintone, describes a new movement of access and creation in support of the jack-of-all-trades, in their blog:

“The citizen developer revolution is here, and it’s allowing teams to work much more quickly, access more information than ever before and make data-driven decisions in real-time. This trend, the democratization of technology, is responsible for driving digital transformation by moving technology decisions once strictly managed by IT departments to the hands of managers, project leaders and other workers who need fast solutions to operational problems.”

Because Low-code platforms are easy to learn and use, even for non-technical people, it doesn’t require expensive digital developers to be tied up for weeks building a product, saving money, time and the opportunity to distribute talent to areas that were previously inaccessible.

Reliable Security- For years, the cloud computing industry has been working hard to assuage customer security concerns, and today most cloud solutions are as secure as (or more secure than) on-premise infrastructure–especially when considering ‘complete’ offerings such as a managed cloud or a platform as a service solution. Offering data security features like data in transit/data at rest encryption, roles and permissions, outage handling, always-on monitoring systems and by offering protection from operation errors through system partitioning and multiple operator concurrence, aPaaS is making cloud development safer than ever. Additionally, platform developers like kintone, who really have your back, go out of the way to offer third-party vulnerability assessments that are conducted on a periodic basis.

Easy Accessibility- Because the software is accessible through a single delivery model, the internet, it’s available at any time, any place, and most importantly, is available through a tool that’s familiar to any user: their web browser! There’s no need for multiple builds of the same software for functionality across platforms, which means no learning curve for cross-platform users.

Consistently Updated Software– You will no longer have to take your server offline in order to update it. On top of that, it won’t even be your responsibility to update the software at all; that duty lies with your trusted aPaaS solution provider, so that you can go ahead and spend your time doing other things, like golfing, or hunting Pokemon.

With benefits like these, it’s hard to find a reason not to go with Application Platform as a Service to help transform the creative process within your organization.