Harnessing Cloud Technologies to Enhance Software Development Processes
Do you want to unlock a faster development pace and gain access to cloud technologies in your work?
Developers and businesses yearn for faster code integration, shorter software release cycles, and deployment of scalable, high-performance applications, every month.
How do you overcome these difficulties? Upgrade your current development environment to a cloud-native software development environment.
Without the cloud, you are most probably fighting an uphill battle.
This article will introduce you to cloud technologies that are changing the development game and present you with development strategies employed by top-tier teams to build great software, every month.
Let's get started.
What you'll learn:
- The Benefits of Cloud Technologies for Development
- 5 Cloud Technologies Every Development Team Should Adopt
- Transformation in the Real World
The Benefits of Cloud Technologies for Development
Cloud technologies offer a wide range of benefits for software development teams. Here are some of the most significant reasons why you should be thinking about them.
Amplify Development Productivity to the Max
One of the ways to improve productivity among your development team is to integrate cloud technologies in their work.
Research shows that using cloud technologies for application development and maintenance results in a 38% increase in productivity. Cloud-based software development is when you build and manage your application using cloud-native services and tools. As a result, your development cycles are significantly accelerated.
But wait. There is more...
Productivity gain is a direct result of shorter development cycles, which leads to shipping more features to your customers.
The moment a development team switches to cloud-first thinking, two major things begin to happen:
- Developers don't have to spend time on managing their infrastructure. They concentrate on writing code.
- The pace at which a team tests, iterates, and deploys software increases by several notches.
Does it make sense?
Cloud technologies are taking away the constraints slowing development. There is a specific reason cloud services and technologies are called cloud-native tools.
Build Scalable and Reliable Applications
Cloud technologies are like having a team of infrastructure specialists always on call.
With unpredictable traffic loads and user requests, modern applications need to be able to scale on-demand, and be available around the clock. Cloud technologies make it possible because it offers the scalability and high-availability that are hard (or expensive) to find in conventional on-premise systems.
Side-note:
Whether it is a lowly simple web application you are trying to build or a complex enterprise system like an invoicing program, with cloud services, a development team can build applications that can scale to meet any business need. You automatically get access to enterprise-grade infrastructure with features such as automatic scaling, built-in redundancy, and global content delivery.
Cut Down Software Development Costs
Cloud technologies help save costs, and that is one of the least appreciated benefits.
When developers migrate to the cloud, they reduce their up-front and running development costs. That is because instead of spending big money on hardware and software licenses, developers can use their teams' IT budget to leverage enterprise-grade tools and pay a small fee based on their usage.
And that is three times a win-win-win.
There is an additional way cloud technologies help you reduce your software development costs...
Research indicates that using cloud technologies, reduces downtime by around 57%. In other words, when your application is running in the cloud, it remains available and accessible to your users. Every second of downtime can cost a business several thousands of dollars. If your cloud provider is reliable, your downtime is close to zero.
5 Cloud Technologies Every Development Team Should Adopt
Here are five specific cloud technologies that are powerfully influencing software development today. This is the list of the exact technologies development teams are using to build scalable applications, faster than ever.
If they can do it, you can, as well.
Container Technologies
Containers are a big deal when it comes to the cloud.
Containers address the problem of "it works on my machine". By using container technologies, an application is packaged with all its dependencies and guaranteed to work on any environment.
Platforms like Docker and Kubernetes make it easy for developers to ensure applications are deployed consistently across all systems, scale up and down automatically, and quickly roll back changes.
Serverless Computing
Serverless computing is a wonderful tool for simplifying code running.
With serverless computing, your team uploads code to the cloud, and the service provider handles all server-related management automatically. It also means the service scales automatically, and the development team will have to pay only when their code runs.
Simple isn't it? It works because you can focus on developing your core business logic while the cloud provider manages all infrastructure complexity on your behalf.
Managed Databases
Has your team spent too much time managing database servers? Managed database services offer you the opportunity to eliminate database administration tasks almost entirely.
Cloud providers offer fully-managed database services that take care of all backups, upgrades, scaling, and monitoring automatically. You get world-class database performance without the usual operational overhead.
CI/CD Pipelines
Cloud-based Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment or CI/CD pipelines are changing the software development world.
CI/CD platforms will automatically test, build and deploy your code whenever a change is made. This results in a shorter feedback cycle on code quality, automatic deployment across several environments, and almost no manual error.
AI-Powered Development Tools
AI-powered tools are already changing the way software developers work. You find most of the features integrated in cloud platforms.
Research shows that 84% of developers are already using AI tools or planning to use them in their software development process. Tools like this help to automatically generate code snippets, identify potential bugs before deployment, and automate routine development tasks.
To add to that, research shows 70% of developers report that AI agents have already decreased time spent on specific development tasks. It means these tools are a source of significant productivity gains.
Transformation in the Real World
We have discussed five effective cloud technologies your development team can use to transform your software development process. By now, it should be clear that adopting cloud technologies is not a walk in the park, it requires both focus and learning. However, that is not the way it works in the real world.
Here is some data on the success of cloud-first teams...
Research shows that 75% of IT leaders are building all new products and features in the cloud. That means this is not a fad. Cloud is the new normal for software development.
Companies using cloud-first development techniques experience a 38% boost in development productivity, 57% reduction in downtime in their applications, quicker time-to-market for new features, and a reduction in total development cost.
In case you don't have the in-house required technical skills, many development teams are partnering with cloud consulting companies to accelerate cloud-first development adoption.
However, remember this is not a piecemeal approach. Before a team begins to integrate advanced cloud technologies in their work, they need to have a good grounding in cloud computing.
Conclusion
Cloud technologies are a disruptive force that is fast redefining how software is built, deployed, and maintained. Containers, serverless computing, managed databases, CI/CD pipelines, and AI-powered tools are coming together to redefine software development workflows.
When software development teams add cloud technologies to their processes, they are better equipped with enterprise-grade tools and infrastructure previously available only to mega-tech companies.
To recap:
- Identify the cloud technologies that can help address the challenges your development team is facing.
- Start small by adopting one technology and continuously grow your use of cloud technologies.
- Target tools that automate manual processes and reduce infrastructure complexity.
- Measure the productivity gains you experience in development speed and application quality.
Software development teams that take up the challenge and embrace cloud technologies today will have a significant competitive advantage in building next-generation application
