The shocking truth behind Low-code and No-code platforms

Numerous enterprises and their IT organizations live in a state of constant stress as they strive to deliver new and improved products, features, and maintain a flawless user experience. Unfortunately, many projects are either delayed or not approved at all due to the shortage of experienced developers. Even after months of development, products may not meet expectations. This is where low-code/no-code comes in to save the day, or does it?

According to Gertner, by 2025, up to 70% of applications will be built using low-code or no-code platforms and tools, a significant increase from the 20% in 2020. While not a new technology, it gained popularity during the pandemic when enterprises had to speed up digital transformation, but faced challenges in hiring experienced developers or training new ones. This market gap is being filled by low-code and no-code solutions, which require less training and experience to operate. Businesses can now employ low-code/no-code developers, automate development, training, and onboarding, and easily create and deploy new innovations. They can quickly receive feedback to determine if they should pursue or abandon their projects. It all sounds like a dream come true.

The problem

Life consists of tradeoffs and if something sounds too good to be true, it is. There is always a catch. And what is the catch here? 

The remaining 30%

If you fail to see the benefits of using low-code/no-code platforms to minimize costs, then you are likely have entirely different priorities as a manager. With the cost of a couple of senior developers, you can hire an entire team of junior developers and purchase licenses for low-code/no-code platforms. Development can be accelerated, reducing costs even further and increasing time-to-market, resulting in higher earnings. Handover and onboarding times can also be quicker, and the required education level is lower, resulting in a reduction in general developer costs as new, fresh talent becomes available to companies. So, why will 30% of companies not adopt this technology by 2025? Are they incompetent managers who should be dismissed? Or are they just poorly managed enterprises?

Some companies may struggle to adapt to this technology or may be waiting for specific tools. However, most of the remaining 30% will come from projects that require extensive knowledge, understanding, and experience in complex systems. While simple products and their user interfaces can be created with ease using low-code/no-code platforms (such as an app that calculates a user’s recommended diet based on their age, height, weight, and weight goals), more advanced tools with smart algorithms (such as an app that monitors a user’s health statistics via a smartwatch, and adapts their diet plan based on their sleep cycles and blood work) require specialized expertise.

What does this mean for you as a manager? You can still innovate faster than before, but now the IT team can deliver their functionality much more quickly without spending thousands of hours analyzing, developing, and testing the same features repeatedly.

The BIG “stuff from nothing” issue

As a child, you may have believed that Christmas presents magically appeared under the tree, or that Santa somehow conjured them out of thin air. Now, as an adult, you understand that the process is not so simple and that gifts are typically purchased using your hard-earned salary.

But what about the components for low-code/no-code applications? Do you think they also magically appear out of thin air? While most applications today have APIs (the building blocks for your low-code/no-code application), each API is unique, like a snowflake. Some APIs are straightforward and can be understood and used by almost anyone, while others are complex, enterprise-grade systems that require certification and years of expertise (such as Salesforce). These enterprise systems remain in your company and continue to deliver new building blocks with added functionality over time.

As a user of low-code or no-code platforms, you don’t have to worry about individual APIs. To streamline the process and actually benefit, you need two things:

1. An API gateway that reflects your enterprise process both functionally and operationally. This is crucial and cannot be emphasized enough. You need smart microservices that provide solutions to your business problems and a way to manage them. You also need tools to manage your APIs, such as identifying who is using them, how much they’re being used, and how to handle issues and errors, as well as managing the API lifecycle.
2. An API portal that can be used to find all the APIs, documentation, and manage the API lifecycle. This directly impacts low-code/no-code applications.

Low-code/no-code applications are already extensively used and will continue to be used even more in the future. However, you need to have a solid infrastructure and proper API management in place to truly benefit from the low-code/no-code approach. It will only work if everything is streamlined.

We can help you with that. Just ping us and let’s get you started