Skip to main content

low-code/no-code (LCNC) development platform


A low-code/no-code (LCNC) development platform is a visual integrated development environment (IDE) that allows citizen developers to drag-and-drop application components, connect them together and create a mobile or web app. This modular approach allows business analysts, office administrators, small-business owners and other people who are not software developers to build and test applications quickly.

An LCNC platform frees the app's creator from having to know anything about traditional programming languages or the development work that has gone into building the platform's configurable components. All the citizen developer sees is a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) that allows components and third-party application program interfaces (APIs) to be hooked together and tested. Modules can be rearranged and repeatedly tested until the app works as expected.
The line between no-code and low-code isn't always clear. Generally speaking, no-code platforms are a specialized type of low-code cloud platform in which the required visual components address industry-specific functions, a specific line of business (LOB) or support a specific company's corporate branding. Low-code platforms, on the other hand, may require the assistance of in-house developers to make small changes to back-end code so the new app will be compatible with other business software.

The growth of low- and no-code platforms has proliferated due to a lack of skilled software developers and the need to improve turn-around time for development projects so business problems can be solved quickly. Analysts at Forrester Research forecast that the low-code market will reach $15 billion by 2020.

Dozens of mainstream and niche software vendors offer low- or no-code platforms, many of which are cloud-based. Popular LCNC platforms include:
  • Force.com - allows developers and nontechnical users to create apps and websites and deploy them quickly to Force.com's multi-tenant servers.
  • FileMaker - allows developers and nontechnical users to quickly add Web database publishing capabilities to their Web site or company intranet with one click.
  • Mendix - allows developers and nontechnical users to build web and mobile applications with ready-made themes, navigation layouts, page templates and design elements.
  • Microsoft PowerApps - allows developers and nontechnical users to build mobile applications from selectable templates without having to know code.
  • OutSystems - allows developers and nontechnical users to quickly define business logic, workflow processes and UIs for mobile and Web apps



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ghosting

Ghosting is to cease communications without notification. The use of the word "ghost" as a verb originated in social media in reference to dating, but the term is now used by employers to describe employees and potential employees who suddenly disappear. Typically, ghosting is used to describe: Job candidates who suddenly stop responding to messages. New hires who fail to show up for their first day of work. Employees who do not show up for a shift. Employees who leave work in the middle of the day and never come back. Some analysts blame ghosting on millennial entitlement. The reasoning is that members of the millennial generation have been brought up to feel they are special -- so special, in fact, that they do not need to follow conventional rules of behavior. Other analysts, however, maintain that ghosting behavior stems from changes in the job market and the phenomenon is simply a reflection of the laws of supply and demand in a healthy jo...

Data deduplication

Data deduplication -- often called intelligent compression or single-instance storage -- is a process that eliminates redundant copies of data and reduces storage overhead. Data deduplication techniques ensure that only one unique instance of data is retained on storage media, such as disk, flash or tape. Redundant data blocks are replaced with a pointer to the unique data copy. In that way, data deduplication closely aligns with incremental backup, which copies only the data that has changed since the previous backup. For example, a typical email system might contain 100 instances of the same 1 megabyte (MB) file attachment. If the email platform is backed up or archived, all 100 instances are saved, requiring 100 MB of storage space. With data deduplication, only one instance of the attachment is stored; each subsequent instance is referenced back to the one saved copy. In this example, a 100 MB storage demand drops to 1 MB. Target vs. source deduplication Data deduplica...

A Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a computer chip that performs rapid mathematical calculations, primarily for the purpose of rendering images. A GPU may be found integrated with a central processing unit (CPU) on the same circuit, on a graphics card or in the motherboard of a personal computer or server. In the early days of computing, the CPU performed these calculations. As more graphics-intensive applications such as AutoCAD were developed; however, their demands put strain on the CPU and degraded performance. GPUs came about as a way to offload those tasks from CPUs, freeing up their processing power. NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and ARM are some of the major players in the GPU market. GPU vs. CPU A graphics processing unit is able to render images more quickly than a central processing unit because of its parallel processing architecture, which allows it to perform multiple calculations at the same time. A single CPU does not have this capability, although multi...