Programming languages are emerging in endlessly. From the original machine language to more than 2500 high-level languages nowadays, programmers shouted "learned to be bald." While programmers are faced with the constant innovation of programming languages, they also face the phenomenon of "moving bricks" repeatedly when they write new applications because many codes already exist.
No code/low code programming came into being. No code/low code is a method of creating applications that allows developers to quickly develop applications with minimal coding knowledge. Developers assemble and configure applications through visual modeling in a graphical interface. In this way, the developer skips all the infrastructure directly, the visual code block already contains 90% of the functions required by most applications, and the developer only focuses on innovating the remaining 10% code logic.
As a result, some developers will inevitably have a new sense of crisis: With the advent of the era of no-code/low-code programming, will programmers lose their jobs? So when we are talking about no-code/low-code programming, what are we talking about?
Low-code programming accelerates enterprise digital transformation
At the beginning, you might think that a low-code development platform is similar to an IDE, integrating some tools to improve R&D efficiency. In fact, low-code platforms provide more capabilities than IDEs. Low-code development turns programming into "building blocks", modularizing common codes, and developers can complete application development by dragging and dropping through a graphical interface.
This saves developers the time to write code manually and flexibly controls application construction. In this way, developers can complete application development with very little code. Low-code platforms can not only integrate software development into other fields, but also allow companies in other fields to enter software development and accelerate their digital transformation.
Low code has the following advantages:
1. From demand to application quickly . Developers can build applications for multiple platforms at the same time, and the Demo can be completed in a few days or even a few hours, saving development costs.
2. Reduce the complexity of research and development and reduce the difficulty of building large-scale systems. The low-code platform framework itself handles a certain degree of complexity, and has built-in security processes, data integration, and cross-platform support, reducing developers' repetitive manual code writing, and developers can focus on the realization of key business logic.
3. The low-code platform integrates mainstream architecture, which can realize rapid deployment , and can also realize software secondary development configuration and multiple configuration development.
Which low-code platform is better?
As early as 1982, in James Martin's paper "APP Development Without Program", he proposed the imagination of building applications without writing programs. Nowadays, many IT companies are rushing to the low-code market, making the above ideas possible: such as Tritium Cloud, which is strategically invested by Alibaba in China, H3 BPM launched by Aozhe in 2010, Jiuzhang Fully Collaborative Cloud with Cloud, and Google App in foreign countries. Companies such as Maker, Microsoft's Power Platform, Mendix, Salesforce, etc. have deployed low-code markets.
According to a report by Forrester Research, the low-code development platform market will reach a scale of $15.5 billion by 2020 , showing that the low-code development market is very hot. Another report by Forrester Research shows that about 100 suppliers are grabbing the market. Among them, Microsoft ranked first in the statistics of "Who is your low-code supplier" in 2018 and 2019.
Source: https://wwwcdn.spanishpoint.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Microsoft-Is-About-To-Shake-Up-Low-Code-Platforms.pdf
Why is Microsoft's low-code artifact favored by enterprises?
90% of Fortune 500 companies use this low-code platform!
At the Microsoft Build 2019 conference, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that 90% of Fortune 500 companies are using Dynamics 365 & Power Platform. As the scalability model of Dynamics 365, Power Platform provides an intelligent low-code platform to help developers and enterprises develop applications easily and accelerate the speed of enterprise digital transformation. Among them, you must not miss the following three artifacts:
1、Power Apps
With the development of the times, Microsoft predicts that the industry will create 500 million new applications in the next five years, which is more than the total number of applications in the past 40 years. Satya once said: All companies are software companies.
This corresponds to the advent of the era of "development for all people". How to let everyone use the least programming knowledge to develop an application the fastest? Power Apps is such a "national application development platform." Allow anyone to quickly build web and mobile applications that can run on multiple terminals without writing code:
Power Apps can help companies reduce application development costs by 70% . Currently, 90% of the world's top 500 companies are using Power Apps custom-built programs. This may be due to the fact that Power Apps is extremely easy to use:
Developers can quickly build and launch applications on any device through pre-built templates and simple drag and drop operations. And use canvases and models to build a large number of application scenarios, you can also customize the innovative details of the application, and optimize for specific tasks and roles.
In the data model, developers can also customize the business process and data model through drag-and-drop design.
2 、 Power BI
In addition to building applications, companies also need to analyze product data and adjust strategies in a timely manner. Power BI enables users to visualize the data obtained from multiple sources, and realizes the simultaneous satisfaction of self-service analysis and enterprise data analysis needs on one platform.
Power BI integrates Microsoft AI technology to help companies prepare data, build machine learning models, and quickly find results from structured and unstructured data, so that companies can quickly transform insights into actions.
Data security is a very important part of enterprises. Power BI is the only BI product that protects data through Microsoft Information Protection and Microsoft Cloud App Security. It provides comprehensive data protection. Every employee is using Power BI, no matter where they are. Access to data, thanks to Microsoft's cutting-edge security technology to ensure data security.
3、Power Automate
In the process of digital transformation of enterprises, one of the biggest challenges is to expand and automate business processes, from digital paper-and-pencil processes to automated complex processes covering traditional and modern applications. RPA (Robot Process Automation) is the key technology to solve this problem.
The introduction of RPA in Power Automate simplifies these end-to-end scenarios through a unified automation platform, and bridges the gap between API-based automation and UI-based automation.
With Power Automate, users can easily convert manual tasks into automated workflows. With only 3 simple steps, traditional applications can be integrated into modern automated systems, and various business systems can be integrated on one platform. It can be used for more than 300 widely used applications and services that support API automation, easily expand the functions of existing applications, and achieve rapid automation of business processes.
Behind this is the blessing of AI Builder. Companies do not need to hire data scientists or professional developers. AI Builder allows general companies and developers to tailor AI functions according to their specific business needs and unique data, such as keyword extraction, language detection, text recognition, and sentiment analysis. . If you are interested in Python, you can add the teacher's WeChat: abb436574, get a set of learning materials and video courses for free~
4、Power Virtual Agents
No code, no professional AI knowledge, go online and run your robot in minutes! Yes, Power Virtual Agents provide such virtual agent functions. You only need a few clicks to talk to the back-end system, and anyone can create and deploy AI-driven intelligent virtual agents in Power Virtual Agents.
Microsoft Hardcore Technology Conference invites you to meet!
On April 17-18, the Microsoft Online Tech Forum hosted by Microsoft with the theme of "Acceleration of Digital Transformation", the top technical experts led by Microsoft (China) CTO Wei Qing, organized the "Business Application: Low Code Development + Automation" forum , for you a comprehensive analysis!
First look at exciting topics:
In addition to the above-mentioned "Business Applications: Low Code Development + Automation" forum, this conference set up 8 major technical forums, covering artificial intelligence, big data, AIoT, open source tools, no code low code, cloud native, DevOps, security Cutting-edge technology issues such as regulations and innovative applications.