In 2020 there are 2.7 billion smartphone users and counting. 90% of their time on these devices are spent on apps. This is just mobile applications, there are also web applications used on the desktop for personal and professional purposes.
With the increasing number of app users, developing applications at scale has taken precedence in the market today and low-code platforms are leading the evolution in application development. And these are not just ordinary applications that users demand, companies also need enterprise-grade applications that provide high performance to meet their business needs.
At a time when application development is in demand, high performance and massive scaling are primary business drivers. From an IT Leader's point of view, it's about speed, performance and business continuity. How fast can applications be developed cost-effectively? How to scale applications to meet the demands of business users? How can modern applications be developed to transform and complement existing legacy systems, without disruption?
At the rate at which apps are consumed, the questions arise. What is the breaking point of the applications that your enterprise can build? How scalable is the platform on which your applications are developed? Is the low-code platform you use truly scalable?
While low-code platforms have taken a front seat in terms of scalability, only those platforms thrive that can manage variable workload, support multiple developers, provide resilience in service availability and sustain user experience in production. Only if all this can be achieved by the low-code platform you choose, can it prove itself to be truly scalable. To find out if your low-code app development platform provides scalability, whether it is dev-time or run-time scalability, use this simple checklist.
The best way to extract the real value of your low-code platform, in terms of scalability, is to make your internal processes and architecture design aligned to your scalability needs.
Meet demands with capacity planning. Scalability is all about adjusting capacity to meet your demands. It is important to first identify the number of developer logins and app deployments permitted on the platform, based on your license terms. For instance, you may have the infrastructure capacity to develop and deploy applications but it may be restricted by your license terms, and vice versa. When setting up, find out the platform capacity and know if it suits your scalability needs.
Use an architectural design suited for enterprise scalability. AD&D teams spend a lot of time to manage, validate and fix large application systems that use different architectural designs. To save time, make teams more agile and create reusable applications at scale, choose low-code platforms that are built to have a microservices architecture model, as it provides the required scalability.
When evaluating a low-code platform ensure that applications built on the platform follow modern application architectural models. A truly scalable low-code has well-defined REST APIs that separates the UI and the backend layers, allowing for developing applications at scale and ensuring that the best practices in terms of performance and design are followed as per industry standards. Ideally, the low-code platform must have fast API creation and binding tools, with automated API documentation, to help you re architect your monolithic, legacy applications to modern, microservices-based microapps.
Streamline operations for faster deployment. The premise of scalability also revolves around the ability to deploy applications with speed. By using a low-code platform that has containerized application delivery, development teams can ensure faster deployment, streamline operations, increase scalability, and portability. With cloud-centric applications pivoting on the scalability factor, low-code platforms that use the Docker containerization model provide a resource-optimized environment that ensures deployment to cloud providers and Kubernetes. Moreover, those platforms that provide auto-containerization also power microservices-based deployments at scale.
The increasing demand for applications today has led to large-scale deployments, which need to have low response times for high concurrent requests. What makes a low-code platform truly scalable is when it is built to use architecture that is stateless, one that allows to develop applications at scale for deployment on container-based systems. When addressing the demand for massive scaling of applications, the best way is to align your internal processes and architecture design to the low-code platform you choose.
