DevOps acts as a bridge between the development and operations team and greatly streamlines every stage of the application development process. However, traditional development methods are generally high-code, which can often act as a hurdle to successful DevOps transformations.
Not only do traditional coding methods make the development process extremely lengthy and challenging, but collaboration within these processes also becomes much more complex. Coding environments require a great deal of technical expertise, which prevents collaboration and communication between technical teams and non-technical developers. This fall-back in communication greatly impairs a business’s ability to keep up with the ever-changing technological world. Another problem with traditional coding methods is that maintenance becomes a hurdle, requiring more resources and time as tweaking custom code is difficult.
To overcome these challenges, many companies are shifting away from the traditional legacy approach and embracing low-code/no-code solutions that optimize the app development process and support the application of essential DevOps policies. This significant shift is proof of the value that low-code/no-code approaches can bring to DevOps. In this article, we’ve highlighted some of the main benefits that low-code technologies offer, alongside exploring how they support a strong DevOps performance.
Why Low-Code/ No-Code Is Worth Consideration
With digital acceleration taking the business world by storm, companies are scrambling to build high-functioning apps quickly, but not all of them have the in-house expertise required to keep up with these increasingly fast-paced requirements. This is where low-code/no-code application programming can work wonders. Below we’ve discussed some of the main advantages that a low-code/no-code approach can bring to the DevOps scene.
Speed, Ease, and Efficiency
There is no denying that traditional high-code developing processes are incredibly labor-intensive. A recent survey by Haystack found that 83% of developers have experienced burnout, with 47% citing a heavy workload as the primary reason. The sheer force of complicated high-code development not only overburdens skilled IT teams but also leads to bad codes, bugged applications, and inefficiency in development.
Low-code/ no-code solutions provide the perfect quicker and easier alternative to this problem. In the words of expert Mike Duensing (CTO of Skuid, a cloud-based no-code app platform developer), no-code/low-code “alleviates the heavy lifting that usually comes from the ground up. That makes the job of the developer go much, much faster.”
As these solutions require minimal to no coding and instead use pre-built interface components, they provide the perfect blend of speed, flexibility, and efficiency. A study by Forrester found that low-code solutions accelerate app development by a whopping 17 times and the time to value increases by 50%. These numbers are proof of the power that a low-code/no-code approach can bring to the DevOps world.
Lower Maintenance Requirements
Maintaining high-code applications is notoriously tricky and the bane of most developers’ existence. A recent study found that the average developer spends upwards of 17 hours a week debugging an application, 4 hours fixing bad code, and 13 hours on technical debt issues! This highlights a clear problem with maintenance in the high-code environment, which usurps much of the developer’s time and leaves little room for creativity and innovation in development.
A low-code/no-code approach also tackles this issue. With minimal to no coding and pre-configured components, there is a significantly lower risk of bad coding, and it is much easier to monitor an application’s functionality. Apps built with a low-code model are also more protected against vulnerabilities and exposures, while the same cannot be said for high-coded applications.
Improved Collaboration
Improved collaboration between the developer and operation teams is at the heart of the DevOps approach, and low-code/no-code technologies greatly help with developmental collaboration.
The problem with the high-code approach is that it requires significant technical expertise, which automatically drives a communication wedge between the technical and non-technical team members. Low-code technologies provide a more collaborative alternative by consolidating integrated platforms into one user-friendly and citizen-developer-friendly front-end. It also improves communication between team members and is helpful when multiple developers are simultaneously making changes to the application.
The Final Word
With a clear talent shortage in the IT world, combined with an increasing pressure on developers to churn out high-functioning applications for business needs of all kinds, the importance of a cheaper, quicker, and more efficient alternative to traditional coding is evident. The solution lies with the no-code/low-code approach, which can go a long way in helping organizations meet their programming and development needs. Adopting a low-code approach is an absolute game-changer for DevOps teams of all kinds, and this technology is currently the most powerful ally a developer team can have. This approach unburdens overworked IT teams, allows them space for innovative application development, and offers agility and speed, which is essential for businesses to keep up with today’s cut-throat, fast-paced, and demanding software marketplace.
