Insights | Digital Enablement

The Low-Code Development Market is Here to Stay

The low-code development market was already growing, but COVID-19 acted as a catalyst to accelerate it to new heights while trending towards a no-code future.

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Author: Macaulan Chiaramonte

New realities require new tools. That has been the case for the accelerated growth of low-code application platforms. In fact, the market for this approach to enterprise software development is predicted to boom in 2021. According to Gartner®, the worldwide low-code development technologies market is projected to total $13.8 billion in 2021, an increase of 22.6% from 2020.^[1]

What is Low-Code Development?

Low-code development utilizes a visual process to optimize all aspects of the software development life cycle, ultimately accelerating delivery and reducing the need to code. Low-code takes a different approach to traditional development and application platforms, making it increasingly in demand.
The goal is to accelerate and democratize all types of enterprise software development efforts by increasing the number of participants able to create digital value without being software engineers. Low-code solutions include, but are not limited to:

Application Platforms
Robotic Process Automation
Integration Platforms
Business Process Management

As enterprises find themselves under increased pressure to produce digital solutions for their business strategy, they gravitate toward low-code platforms to increase development productivity. Coupling this pressure with digital necessity and the remote work phenomenon during COVID-19 has only accelerated the growth of these solutions.

Benefits of Low-Code Development

Why should we consider low-code development as an option for our business problems?

Build and iterate to scale:

Create various solutions, such as business-critical systems, modernization, or process automation, without incurring a high cost.
Build sustainable solutions that are easy to scale using cloud-native architecture.
Deliver rapid and continuous improvements to users with engaging digital experiences.

An alternative way of developing business solutions:

Increase ability to be agile and adjust to customer and business needs.
Empower more resources and talent to contribute and build applications.
Foster a stronger IT-Business partnership by breaking down silos.

Attain exceptional time-to-value:

Use existing resources to quickly build and deliver business applications.
Empower cross-functional teams to make faster decisions with baked-in collaboration.
Increase developer productivity with elements like Software Development Kits (SDKs), visual UIs, and recyclable components such as Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

Future of Low-Code Development

The term low-code indicates that there may be some coding expertise needed. Yes, there is some coding knowledge required for this type of solution; however, a smaller percentage of participants in the development lifecycle need this skill.

As this market accelerates, a younger sibling emerges: no-code development. No-code development is just as it sounds – platforms that don’t require any coding to develop applications. At the heart of no-code platforms are APIs. Companies like Postman envision an “API-First World”^[2]. This means:

Global Repositories of all public APIs
Instant searches for internal and global APIs
Support of every API technology
API literacy by teaching in schools and universities

By unlocking the full potential of APIs, no prior knowledge of code development tools will be required to build common applications, tests, integrations, or data transfers. While APIs are highly technical, when enough of them are created and shared in a global repository there are limitless no-code business applications. Gartner® predicts that by 2025, 70% of new applications developed by enterprises will use low-code or no-code technologies, up from less than 25% in 2020.^[3]

Conclusion

Low-code development is already transforming the digital landscape across all industries. COVID-19 accelerated the need for digital transformation, and a remote-ready workforce is pushing businesses toward these solutions. This trend is set to rapidly increase in scale and ease as APIs become global and mainstream, and as low-code and no-code implementations democratize development for the non-developer across the enterprise.

If you are curious about the steps you need to take to implement low-code or no-code development in your organization, contact us today, or visit our digital enablement services page to learn more about what we can do for you.

Macaulan Chiaramonte is a Senior Consultant who is passionate about building scalable, maintainable, and easy-to-use solutions for businesses.

[1] Costello, Katie, and Meghan Rimol. “Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Low-Code Development Technologies Market to Grow 23% in 2021.” Gartner, 16 Feb. 2021, https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-02-15-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-low-code-development-technologies-market-to-grow-23-percent-in-2021.

[2] Asthana, Abhinav. “Postman’s Series D Funding and the API-First World.” Postman Blog, 29 Sept. 2021, https://blog.postman.com/postman-announces-series-d/.

[3] Wong, Jason, and Kimihiko Iijima. “Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Low-Code Application Platforms.” Gartner, 20 Sept. 2021, https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-27IIPKYV&ct=210923&st=sb.