Experts and industry leaders expect application development to remain as important as ever over the coming years. Using cloud-based assets for developing, testing, and deploying applications provides significant benefits—and the paybacks are only increasing.
There are many reasons why developing apps in the cloud is better than migrating apps from a desktop integrated development environment (IDE). Listed below are 13 reasons you should consider developing apps in the cloud.
1. Cloud Application Development Is Faster
A cloud platform streamlines the application development process by providing a centralized, comprehensive package. This improves system efficiency while offering the tools and connections needed to test apps, support mobile app development, and allow developers to self-provision testing environments. Cloud platforms enable applications to go from building to deployment much faster than before.
2. The Cloud Enhances Collaborative Efforts and Mobility
Few developers today operate as individuals. Instead, most operate as part of a greater team. When using a desktop IDE, developers must constantly step outside the IDE to communicate with team members. In the cloud, communications occur within the workspace, allowing developers to collaborate with others in a centralized location. Team members can access the workspace anywhere, anytime. Security permitting, your team can even connect via the cloud on their mobile devices.
3. Desktop IDEs Require Managing Complicated Configurations
Desktop IDEs require substantial amounts of configuration management. Developers must also function as system administrators to maintain their own data centers. This can cause errors and is both time-consuming and difficult to automate with DevOps. Furthermore, when multiple computers are involved, the configurations cannot be synchronized, so tasks must be repeated on each computer. This slows production down and makes the overall process clunky and misaligned with scaling needs.
4. Cloud Develop Improves Productivity
Most IDEs are disk and memory hogs. They have substantial boot times and can consume resources to the detriment of other applications. This slows the developer’s machine, making him and the rest of the team less productive. In many cases, these computers are also used for a wide range of other crucial work so the slowdowns occur across the board.
5. The Cloud Facilitates Upgrades
People no longer want comprehensive apps that do not get updated for extensive periods of time. Instead, many prefer frequently updated apps that offer a single utility or two. The cloud offers a way to upgrade apps quickly, efficiently, and reliably. This better enables a process called continuous delivery (CD) software, which allows organizations to deliver high-quality software faster and update applications easily alongside changing market conditions.
6. Access Levels the Playing Field
Traditionally, new (or small) players find themselves handicapped by a lack of resources available to larger businesses. This causes significant infrastructure costs, collaboration challenges, and scalability concerns. Cloud development levels the playing field by allowing teams of all sizes to access tools once only available to top players. It also allows them to reduce costs and develop apps that are scalable, robust, and filled with features.
7. Cloud Development Reduces Costs
The hardware and software needed for development and test environments can be expensive. With the cloud, the need to invest in fixed assets is reduced or eliminated completely. Many cloud vendors offer pay-as-you-go plans that can reduce initial investments as well. This spares you the cost of migrating your app to the cloud and staffing costs associated with hiring specialized employees who understand your unique desktop IDE.
8. Developers Always Work with the Latest Version
The cloud constantly updates to align with the most up-to-date features, security measures, and improvements. This doesn’t ring true for cloud vendors responsible for upgrading their platforms. Instead of waiting for the latest software version release, cloud developers gain access to the latest version immediately for newly released tools and more.
9. Ability to Scale Easily with Demand
With a cloud development environment, you are only charged for what you actually use. Costs like storage, network input and output, and compute time can shift as customer needs change. With the cloud, you can scale alongside these changes as needed, without incurring unnecessary expenses. When demand is high, you can add on what you need, and when demand decreases, you can reduce your terms.
10. The Cloud Lets You Reach the Market Sooner
With a development platform in the cloud, many of the time-consuming tasks are already done for you. Security, APIs, back-end connections, pre-packaged functions and integrations are established and ready to go. This allows developers to build apps in less time and perform rapid iterations. By cutting out a large amount of work you’d have to do otherwise, you can get your app into the hands of users in less time.
11. The Cloud Offers More Control
Without the cloud, the typical development scenario involves using various tools to monitor disconnected processes. Most cloud-based development platforms offer integrated management that spans the entire stack. These integrations prompt cohesive control analytics, back-end fail-safes, and more, all from a single source for easy access no matter where you are.
12. The Cloud Offers a Community of Developers
In a desktop IDE, developers have little access to support. Cloud development platforms have strong communities of developers who share information, tips, and best practices. Floating your questions and roadblocks to other developers can help your team find creative ways to solve problems or develop workarounds for some of the biggest issues you could encounter.
13. The Cloud is Ideal for Outsourcing
Cloud development is especially suitable for outsourced software development. Regardless of where team members are located, they can collaborate on the project through the cloud. Theoretically, you could divide a project into small pieces, and developers in countries around the world could each work at their own piece, resulting in work that progresses 24/7. This enables you to make modifications in minutes or hours instead of days, keeping the project moving forward and speeding up iterations.
Cloud Development for Application Success
Developing apps in the cloud can save you time and money, allowing you to get your apps to market sooner and at a lower cost. Cloud development also allows you to perform upgrades more efficiently. The cloud offers greater agility and flexibility, the ability to scale as needed, and opportunities that could be difficult or impossible to leverage in a physical environment.
Xperity Knows Cloud
The cloud experts at Xperity can help you plan and execute your transition to the cloud, enabling you to take full advantage of the benefits that each platform provides. We base our success on helping our clients become more successful, and we are always focused on ways to give our clients the most value.
Because of this, our dedicated, talented team members take time to understand your business and your specific needs.
Contact us today to learn more about how we work and can help you achieve your goals.
