Hello everyone and welcome to the Cognixia podcast, where every week tech enthusiasts gather to learn about what’s new in the world of emerging technologies. From cloud computing to IT service management, information security to Agile, we discuss a new topic weekly on this podcast, hoping to share some insight and opportunity into this amazing world of digital technologies.
This week, we are going to be talking about something that has been a very happening technology for quite some time now – Low-code. As the name suggests, the technology involves minimal possible coding, helping someone with absolutely no background or practice in coding to be able to create applications easily. The technology is seeing a huge demand as it does not just reduce the dependence on skilled coding professionals but allows anyone to easily build anything they want with minimal coding. Low-code tech enables business technologists to work outside the folds and umbrellas of conventional IT and create a tech or analytical capabilities for business use. Some latest projections about this technology have been published recently, which is exactly what we will be talking about in today’s episode.
The Gartner Research
Gartner, Inc. is a technological research and consulting firm that researches a host of technologies and shares this research through private consulting, executive programs, and conferences. Gartner provides actionable, objective insights that enable executives and their teams to make faster, smarter decisions and unlock stronger performance for the organization’s mission-critical priorities. They have over 40 years of experience providing insights and working with experts, and they are considered to be a very respected and reliable name when it comes to research.
So, what has Gartner found about low-code technology?
Well, according to the latest research by Gartner, low-code technology is set to grow to nearly $27 billion in 2023 fueled by hyper-automation and composability. This would be a roughly 20% increase over 2022. Of the different components of low-code tech, low-code application platforms are forecast to see the largest growth, growing by approximately 25% to reach nearly USD 10 million in 2023.
Gartner has also predicted that by 2026, developers outside the formal IT departments will account for over 80% of the user base for low-code development tools. To get an idea of how huge this is, we would like to tell you that this number was 60% in 2021.
Gartner has also opined that by 2026 a large number of organizations will have hyper-automation and composable business initiatives in place, which would be a major driver for the demand for low-code technology. In these fast-paced times, there is a dire need for speedy application delivery and highly customizable automation workflows. With the widespread availability of low-code technology, not just professional IT developers but also non-IT professionals, commonly referred to as business technologists are empowered to achieve digital competencies and ramp up the speed of delivery which is an absolute must in today’s highly competitive environments. This, in turn, boosts the time-to-market and reduces IT overheads while also increasing productivity, and agility, and offering customers a much better customer experience.
As we mentioned before, the low-code application platforms are the biggest market segment for low-code technology, the citizen automation development platforms are growing at a very rapid pace too. Gartner’s growth forecast for the citizen automation development platforms is at about 30.2% for the year 2023. Common use cases of these platforms would include workflow automation, building web-based forms, connecting data and content across multiple SaaS platforms, building data visualizations, and generating reports.
There is one major area where low-code technology scores very high – cost and convenience. It is fact that truly skilled and proficient tech talent is expensive and would be task-specific. On the contrary, if an organization invests in growing a hybrid borderless workforce, it would prove immensely beneficial for them as this workforce would then be equipped to deliver on business tasks as well as selected IT tasks. Low-code development is highly intuitive, and flexible, and offers very powerful as well as useful features. This makes it very efficient and easy to use for business technologists as well as citizen technologists who can use low-code technology to meet business needs while improving productivity, efficiency, & agility.
As operational optimization demands continue to rise and the skills gap continues to widen, there is a growing need for embracing hyper-automation. Gartner has predicted that the spending on hyper-automation-enabling software touch about USD 720 billion in 2023. A chunk of this would go towards low-code application platforms as well. The other areas where this could be spent include Integration Platform-as-a-Service, Robotic Process Automation, Citizen Automation, Multi-experience Development Platforms, etc. In essence, the spending would be targeted toward supporting areas like process automation, integration, decision analytics, intelligence, etc.
Earlier, we mentioned composability or composable enterprises. We would like to take a minute to explain what we mean by that. Gartner defines a composable enterprise as an organization that delivers business outcomes and adapts to the pace of business change. They necessitate better reuse of existing packaged business capabilities for Agile application development as well as for building customized user experiences for new workflows and processes. With low-code development technologies, there is greater potential and avenues to build agile and resilient software solutions, which in turn offer valuable and much-needed support to composable enterprises. Using low-code technology, one can compose and recompose modular components as well as packaged business capabilities. It can also be used for building adaptive custom applications which can keep up with changing business needs of composable enterprises.
Armed with low-code technology, organizations can focus on driving innovation at a much more rapid pace by removing the immense dependability on IT development professionals. Low code is a significantly more visual approach to development. Suppose, a business technologist is trying to automate a workflow, they would chalk out a diagram that illustrates the process that they are trying to automate and then the low-code software to do the heavy lifting of automating the process. Gartner predicts that about 66% of enterprises would have adopted this approach by 2024. It encourages collaboration, speed, and agility, all of which are indispensable in this post-Covid world.
However, we would also like to mention here that low-code development is not just for non-IT professionals, it is also a huge blessing for IT professionals. With access to low-code platforms, IT developers, who more often than not find the demand for software to far exceed their capacity to deliver. Using low-code technology, professional developers can ramp up the speed at which they deliver products, which is immensely helpful when working with mission-critical applications that require rapid turnaround times. Estimates say that one can build an application using low-code technology roughly 10 times faster than traditional means. Now imagine the time and resource savings you make when you switch to low-code! Not just that, low code will slash your costs of maintenance, changes, upgrades, and handling by almost half in a snap!
Technology is increasingly focusing on breaking down silos and embracing new ways of doing things to be able to do them better and faster. Low-code technology empowers individuals and organizations with exactly that superpower.
So, if you are a current or aspiring IT professional or a business technologist, or someone looking to learn a new skill, do check out low-code technology. To take it a notch up, you can add a certification in DevOps or cloud computing to your repertoire, which would be a huge boost not just for your skills, but also for your resume. While you are at it, do check out Cognixia’s range of live online instructor-led training and certification programs which are super helpful and insightful for working professionals as well as beginners. Equipped with the right skills, you can take 2023 by storm, so why not start preparing now?
And with that, we come to the end of this week’s podcast episode. We thank you for taking the time to listen to us and we hope you liked it. Do share your feedback and suggestions with us. You can also learn more about Cognixia and our course offerings on our website www.cognixia.com
Until next week then
Happy Learning!
