How mobile app development and the cloud are joining forces (and why it’s good news)
The widespread acceptance and application of cloud-based technology make it one the most valuable tools that companies have at their disposal. While the uses for enterprise businesses, specifically storage and data, are well-known, developers have also begun to realize the benefits of using cloud technology to build mobile software applications.
Mobile Cloud Benefit #1: Reliable Hosting
Properly managing the hosting of an application requires time and vigilant maintenance. When the site crashes or data fails to load, it’s up to the host to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it as quickly as possible.
In the case of mobile applications, the situation can be even more urgent as users may be relying on the application to provide real-time information or services that impact their daily activities. Likewise, it’s a lot easier for a disgruntled user to delete an app from their phone than it is to remove software from their computer.
As a result, many Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Software as a Service(SaaS) vendors now provide hosting support. While cloud-based mobile hosting reduces the amount of control that companies and developers have over their software, the increase in hosting reliability, site uptime and ongoing hassle-free maintenance makes the tradeoff more than worthwhile.
Mobile Cloud Benefit #2: Better Development
Depending on the required functionality of an app, developing it can either be relatively simple or demanding and complex. Cloud-based app hosting allows for self-provision development and DevOps, the latter of which can eat up a significant amount of time testing and retesting before it is able to give the go-ahead for developers to move to the next phase of programming.
Likewise, with both of these tasks covered in the mobile cloud platform, developers don’t have to wait for the delivery of any software or hardware. This means less time to production-ready mobile apps and faster scaling of applications.
In addition, with a cloud-based mobile app platform, collaborating with fellow developers, project managers and designers is easier than ever.
Mobile Cloud Benefit #3: Increased Security
As data plays an increasingly important role in mobile applications, the need to protect and appropriately backup this data does, as well. Developers who use in-house methods, which usually only offer one of two methods for storing and maintaining data, risk losing it all if a power outage, network crash or fatal hardware error occurs.
Cloud-based app development uses multiple redundancies storing several different copies of data in several different places. Similarly, as data is hosted in a remote cloud location and not on the premises in a local server, it is also significantly more difficult for employees to gain access to data for which they do not explicitly have permission.
These multiple layers of security make cloud-based development more attractive than traditional methods.
Mobile Cloud Benefit #4: Time Saved
It’s no secret that web development, particularly at the enterprise level, can take a considerable amount of time. Anything that can make this process easier and save developers time is a huge plus. According to one survey conducted by Evans Data, programmers found that using a cloud-based platform for app development reduced the amount of time it took to get their application production-ready by an average of 11.6 percent. Some developers even reported reducing their development time by as much as 30 percent.
Even at the lowest end, this kind of time saved can have tremendous implications for the productivity of developers and companies at large. Because of this, the trend of using cloud platforms for mobile app development is going to not only continue but accelerate in the near future.
Conclusion
The demand for mobile apps shows no signs of slowing so developers are likely to look for more efficient ways to meet the demand of consumers. With cloud-based platforms, developers have the opportunity to take their creations to the next level with just the click of a button.