For decades, custom applications were the norm and allowed organisations to create applications designed to meet the unique requirements of the business.
However, the downside is that these applications require more time to build and most likely will be more expensive to maintain as questionable transparency practices are being applied, as well as the issues surrounding the use of generative AI. Some run the risk of the original developers no longer being around to maintain them.
With the growing popularity of citizen developers using local or no-code platforms, is there value for custom applications? Ankit Gupta, the practice director at the Everest Group, speaks with PodChats for FutureCIO, to shed light on the future of custom applications.
Custom applications
“The beauty of technology is things were designed to be simple, but they end up being complex. That is where custom applications are required even on top of platforms to drive more meaningful business outcomes for the enterprise,” says Gupta.
The beauty of technology is things were designed to be simple, but they end up being complex. That is where custom applications are required even on top of platforms to drive more meaningful business outcomes for the enterprise
Ankit Gupta
Custom applications have continued to evolve with the emergence of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing. Gupta posits that expectations on custom applications have evolved, especially when business leaders realise their cost function, and they use them to drive more revenue.
Aside from that, he says that the architecture also experienced changes in the past years.
“Initially you talk about mainframe, it is not like 'you just go ahead and code, and you are done'. Now, architects have much more responsibility. They need to understand the business context and identify whether they should have an application, which is on the cloud, which is on the mainframe, which is on something else, a hybrid cloud, or a multi-cloud environment. And then they decide the architecture of an application, whether it needs to be microservices.”
Ankit Gupta
Moreover, Gupta observes some changes in the execution of custom applications. “The developers are now being saddled with more and more.” Aside from coding, developers are expected to execute platform engineering, performance optimisation, and QA.
“The demand team has also changed. It is not just about one business problem or one mega application. Now, we are looking at microservices, even in a similar fashion, micro applications. We build custom applications and connect them because eventually, business processes are combinations of multiple systems, and everything needs to tie back together to give that seamless experience to the user from stakeholders,” he explains.
Democratisation of programming
With the democratisation of programming and the emergence of no-code and low-code platforms, Gupta assures developers and programmers will not lose their jobs.
“That is a very far,” he says.
“There is a good saying which I will reflect upon and which suggests that we underestimate the impact of technology and overestimate the effect of technology in the short run. We were overestimating that the developers no longer exist. On the contrary, dual momentum continues,” Gupta explains.
He predicts that local coding platforms will become the new-age platforms that can fuel faster application development. On the other hand, citizen development will facilitate process orchestration, faster integration, and ease of business for users.
“There is an augmentation that would happen with the local platforms for the developers, and they will continue to exist. But there would be the users coming in who will be developing or orchestrating their business workflows.”
Ankit Gupta
He says that the emergence of no code/low code platforms will democratise business impact, aside from democratising application development.
“If you want to make some business impact, and if you can do it by yourself, business users will be speaking with the workforce. If you want them done by someone else (developers), you can rope them in and have faster results with local platforms,” he explains.
AI and application development
For Gupta, the potential impact of Artificial Intelligence on application development will be “enormous.”
“All the global service integrators are investing significantly in AI capabilities. Overall, with AI technology and automation, which has existed in combination, the impact would be very significant to productivity,” he concluded
Click on the PodChat player to listen to Gupta talk about the future of custom applications:
1. Custom application/coding has decades of practice, particularly during the heady days of mainframes and monoliths. How has it evolved during the era of SaaS and cloud computing?
2. To what extent are business leaders requiring IT to continue with custom development (to cater to the perceived uniqueness of business processes) vs using SaaS solutions?
3. How will standardising on SaaS impact the application team?
4. What will the adoption of low-code/no-code – the democratisation of programming – mean for the future of application development?
5. How do you see AI impacting application development?
6. Do we still need custom applications in 2024? What conditions?
