How next-generation applications unlock business value

Introduction

Numerous businesses have already begun the journey to digitalization. This transition is necessary for survival and success in the new digital and intelligent world. According to a McKinsey report , “Seventy percent of executives say that over the next three years, they expect digital trends and initiatives to create greater top-line revenues for their businesses, as well as increased profitability.”

Most native apps have been doomed to failure from the moment they were released. Many apps started to deteriorate the moment they were released, whether as a result of shifting screen resolutions, underlying platform modifications, or just out-of-date, hard-coded content. Simply sustaining apps requires expensive and resource-intensive code maintenance, hardware infrastructure, highly skilled developers for each platform, and regular app store updates, among other things. Worse, many applications developed for a particular platform (such as Android or iOS) are incompatible with other platforms, resulting in confusing customer experiences.

Developing apps, the old-fashioned way, from scratch, is no longer feasible. New features and capabilities are expected by businesses nearly immediately. Therefore, if you want to create the next great businsess app, reduced time to market and exceptional agility are necessities. Businesses in the modern day need apps that can scale to meet the needs of their customers (or employees), adapt to new requirements as they arise, and work across numerous platforms without requiring regular maintenance from IT professionals.

Pam Moore, Founder Marketing Nutz, share a quote from John Chambers, Exec Chairman Cisco Systems, “At least 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years. If they don’t figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies.”

“At least 40% of all businesses will die in the next 10 years… If they don’t figure out how to change their entire company to accommodate new technologies.” — John Chambers, Exec Chairman Cisco Systems #digitaltransformation #leadership

— Pam Moore (@PamMktgNut) March 17, 2021

Fortunately, a new paradigm is developing to address these problems. A new approach where cutting-edge apps are developed utilizing a new methodology – Next Gen Application Development & Maintenance (ADM). This blog offers an overview of how the new next-generation applications development is unlocking business value. But before that, let’s look at what next-generation applications are.

What are next-generation applications?

Legacy applications are expensive, proprietary, and time-consuming to deploy. They operate on expensive infrastructure, employ archaic licensing models, and are challenging to deploy. Legacy apps are typically monolithic, making it difficult for them to scale in accordance with growing demand. Because of this, they can only expand in one direction, which is vertically, by using the same few massive servers with additional hardware resources. Just using cloud infrastructure to host legacy apps is not enough to meet the demands of new customers.

Conversely, next-generation apps are future-ready, loosely coupled, and scale independently, i.e., offer horizontal scalability. Next-generation apps are developed utilizing serverless operating models, modular architecture, agile development processes, and DevOps approaches. They’re a step up over their predecessors because of their increased flexibility, scalability, portability, and resilience. They shorten the time it takes to bring new products to market and cut down on overall costs for businesses.

Next-generation application development and maintenance (ADM) is a notion that aims to extend the life of apps—possibly indefinitely—by connecting the processes of developing and managing them with broader business goals. Next-generation apps are designed to accommodate millions of users and numerous deployment models (such as local servers and the cloud). The next-generation application development approach automates a significant portion of the operational overhead involved with traditional application development. As a result, teams can concentrate on business logic and create higher-quality solutions.

Key characteristics of next-generation applications

To enhance healthcare cybersecurity resilience and minimize cyber risks, medical professionals must be trained to be better prepared for all the healthcare cybersecurity risks they will likely encounter. However, medical professionals are usually undertrained, and it’s can be pretty challenging to educate and inform the medical staff about cyber threats as they have competing priorities in varied roles and time limitations.

Healthcare staff must be familiarized with basic online protection, best practices and training to identify common Cybersecurity and medical device risks as medical devices usually collect, store, and transmit protected healthcare information over the network, posing a security risk to patient information.

To empower medical staff, it would be beneficial to provide a simple user interface and a secure network that is quick and easy to access. Furthermore, solutions like SSO and MFA continue to gain popularity as they use a one-time code – adding additional security layers without requiring the user to know anything more than their own login credentials.

Medical devices are an easy entry point for hackers

Flexible

No firm is immune to change, so businesses must anticipate industry needs and trends and adapt to client demands. From healthcare and automotive to retail, all industries need to continuously enhance products, shorten release cycles, and deliver regular upgrades. Thus, a healthcare provider that wants to introduce a new client engagement feature to its mobile app, an automaker that promises a new car every week, or a retailer competing with Amazon all require nibble and responsive applications to change quickly at scale.

Responsive architecture

Next-generation applications must be designed in such a way that they can adapt to new conditions and new requirements, all while remaining in sync with the needs of the business. This implies that they should be designed and controlled using a discrete and dynamic architecture.

Eric Johnson, Principal developer advocate, AWS, at AWS re:Invent 2022 talks about Building next-gen applications with event-driven architectures.

Insight-driven

At times, it is necessary for staff to have access to confidential patient data, both locally & remotely, and on multiple devices. Due to the urgency of the medical industry, staff members must be able to share information immediately – there’s no time to pause and consider the security implications of the devices they’re using. The primary concern here is that the devices used to share information are not always secure.

If users access data remotely, they may need only certain privileges to perform their tasks, not the access to whole system or full admin account privileges. Such precautions reduce the chances of admin accounts being compromised. For healthcare organizations, any solution that can save time and money by automatically regulating user permissions without compromising patient data is a must-have. A multi-factor authentication solution ensures only authorized users can access sensitive data, preventing attacks from compromised credentials or unauthorized users.

Autonomous

While organizations aim to enhance human capabilities with intelligent apps, they must also design systems that reduce human participation and govern themselves. These apps should be aware of the ecosystem and context and be able to operate autonomously in complex settings. Enterprises are deploying conversational assistants to serve clients outside of normal service hours and designing self-healing systems to improve service resilience.

Secure development

Employ a secure development approach for the application development. This involves utilizing static application security testing (SAST), software composition analysis (SCA), dynamic code analysis (DCA), and formatting checkers to examine all code as early as feasible in the development process. This also requires DevOps teams to adhere to security best practices.

Experience-centric

Businesses must provide unique, customized, and frictionless digital experiences as the number of touchpoints grow and the amount of data aimed at customers’ increases. Business applications are expected to facilitate and streamline the delivery of such stakeholder-driven experiences. What matters most to consumers, partners, and employees is the reliability and consistency of the application experience. Businesses want their applications to be able to anticipate and respond to users’ needs, deliver a unified experience across all channels and provide highly tailored, interactive content based on data.

Scalable

Automated, on-demand, and near-real-time scaling of application and infrastructure environments is one of the core characteristics that make modern infrastructure valuable. Scalability in the cloud enables pricing flexibility, performance enhancements, and more options to generate income.

On-Demand

For a business to truly embrace the concept of “on-demand,” the process by which new instances of an application are created must be completely hands-free and automated. On-demand applications allow for instantaneous access and increased client satisfaction.

Platform agnostic

Be platform-neutral. Containers have emerged as the de facto standard for platform-agnostic runtimes. This means that a program is designed to operate regardless of the platforms or environments in which it is likely to be executed.

Open source software

Make open-source software a top priority. Because next-generation applications necessitate that development teams be able to peek under the hood of the code. For this reason, open-source software (OSS) is essential for keeping the spirit of next-generation applications alive.

API connectivity

Microservices are an application’s building blocks, and APIs bind these independent services together and make them compatible with one another and the rest of the ecosystem. APIs’ greatest strength is that they serve as the foundation for integrating, streamlining, and standardizing otherwise incompatible systems and technologies. Connected apps can exploit interconnected hardware, applications, and databases to gather data, perform functions, and offer enhanced services.
As organizations strive to give a faster, superior, and more personalized user experience, it becomes crucial for them to design an API strategy that takes both internal and external ecosystems into account. Enterprises must also establish a platform-agnostic technology backbone that allows a smooth link to IoT devices, databases, and multiple apps.

Embedded intelligence

Applications that are able to learn, adapt and make decisions based on context can greatly improve services and the end-user experience. By conducting simulations and analytics, intelligent apps may assess operational occurrences such as system failure; softer elements of human behavior such as mood, tone, intent, etc., and anticipate anomalies much more efficiently and effectively. In addition, organizations can enhance their own apps through the use of intelligent automation. Businesses can greatly benefit from implementing artificial intelligence-based technologies such as natural language processing, facial recognition, image processing, and recommendation services to improve their customers’ experiences. To embed intelligence in applications, businesses must combine and process data from a wide variety of sources, including sensors, edge devices, customer interactions, and social media feeds. This requires a solid data management practice, savvy use of intelligence-based services, and proactive uptake in decision-making.

Easy Upgrades

Implementing a cutting-edge user interface and integrating it with continuous deployment systems should make upgrading enterprise applications as simple as clicking a few buttons. Because of the simplicity of the upgrading process, any resulting human error can be avoided, and production may carry on with little to no downtime.

Centralized Management

A “single pane of glass” console can now be built by taking an end-to-end approach to the enterprise application development, testing, deployment, and management processes. This console gives the development and deployment teams a strong tool for managing what has been deployed to different organizational infrastructures. The organization’s innovation projects can benefit from enhanced visibility and accountability thanks to a centralized strategy.

Let us look at how next-gen applications will unlock business value.

Expand the business

Next-gen Applications will be able to detect and support the creation of new business possibilities due to their scalability and capacity to gain ecosystem benefits. By introducing novel channels and approaches, they will contribute to an increase in sales and profits. Businesses can benefit from rapidly launching new service channels enabled by adaptable and fungible applications. As apps become more intelligently connected to a larger ecosystem, they have access to new service channels, including social networks, intelligent assistants, partner service channels, and even neighboring sectors.

Increases productivity

When developers and administrative personnel have access to intuitive technology that decreases their cognitive load, they are more likely to operate at their maximum capacity. Next-gen application development eliminates repetitive processes, automates tasks, and enables employees to use their time more productively. Additionally, Next-gen applications may offer fewer application-related issues, enhanced functionality, and sophisticated features that facilitate efficient processes.

Michael Hichwa, SVP Software Development at Oracle, shares a picture of Oracle CloudWorld, the global conference where Larry Ellison discusses the productivity of next-generation application development.

Improve user experience

To improve the user experience, businesses can employ a nimble and lightweight application architecture to offer incremental features and services. As applications become intelligently connected to an increasing number of devices and systems, they have access to unique consumer data and engagement channels, enabling a smooth, individualized, and consistent experience across channels. Moreover, self-healing and self-governing apps make services accessible to clients 24/7.

At Oracle Cloud World @CloudWorld today Larry Ellison discussed next generation application development productivity and Oracle APEX @OracleAPEX. As part of this Larry highlighted APEX success with the US CDCs v-safe application and Oxford GPAS system. All live-streamed. pic.twitter.com/bCron3qdw2

— mike hichwa (@MikeHichwa) October 18, 2022

Enhance efficiencies

Next-Gen applications will self-learn and continuously improve, ultimately increasing the efficiency of processes. The adaptability of the application architecture will allow them to adapt to and respond to changing requirements, making modifications easier and more scalable. With seamless communication and visibility, application monitoring and maintenance will be more effective.

The value of automation isn’t limited to programmable tasks that improve application operations. Next-gen apps will help humans make complicated decisions, boost company efficiency, and reduce bias, weariness, and error costs.

Combat disruption

As organizations face rising competition and disruptive pressures, next-gen apps will provide organizations with a platform for continual development and experimentation, enable collaborative innovation, and open new channels for improvisation, particularly when they access ecosystem partners. Moreover, these applications provide businesses with access to vital data that enables them to comprehend, anticipate, and respond to changing client needs.

Flexible Deployment

Develop it once, and use it everywhere. Reduce the amount of code needed to build an app and significantly reduce the time it takes to make the app. This method of rapid application development requires little to no coding and provides features like “one-click” mobilization, where an app may be converted to a mobile version with the click of a mouse, and instantaneous distribution through major app markets.

Real-time data access

Information about your customers, your marketing initiatives, and the efficiency of your sales team are now immediately accessible. You may do this on your own with the help of a straightforward UI. Next-gen Applications allows businesses to access a ton of information at hand that lets them make data-driven decisions with greater speed, precision, and impact because of the ready availability of data.

Any device, platform, or cloud

Next-gen Applications allows businesses to develop applications that are compatible with any platform, device, or cloud service. Users anticipate this degree of accessibility and a uniform experience regardless of the platform they are using. Next-generation applications will provide this level of interoperability and universal access.

Speed to market

By accelerating development cycles, businesses can gain a competitive edge when responding to changing employee or customer needs, broader market trends, or when developing content and functionality for everyday operations. Deliver trustworthy solutions and user experiences more quickly and inexpensively.

Cost optimization

Improving the performance of an application decreases expenses and deployment time. Next-gen applications help businesses to expedite the updating of applications and save on operational expenses.

Conclusion

The proliferation of cloud computing and mobile technology has undoubtedly supplied the necessary infrastructure to make the next-gen application a reality. However, a new type of user is largely responsible for this dynamic business climate. Next-generation users, also known as Millennials, these users now demand business systems that function similarly to the technology and systems they have adopted and grown accustomed to—mobile applications that are quick, simple, and user-friendly. Perhaps the most significant advantage of Next Gen apps is that they allow non-technical personnel, such as marketers, to handle day-to-day updates, content additions, and configuration changes. As a result of combining these elements, businesses may provide their consumers and employees with better digital experiences.

Sparity possesses the knowledge, customized solutions, and collaborative approach necessary to facilitate digital transformation. We assist clients in building Next-gen apps, driving digital transformation agendas, enhancing business operations, and gaining a competitive edge. Since cyber-attacks in healthcare are on the rise and becoming increasingly sophisticated, getting outside expertise is critical for minimizing disruption and maintaining the safety of your patients and employees. Sparity is one such cybersecurity service provider that offers focused security solutions that suit your specific organizational needs to help your organization protect itself from cyber-attacks and grow in the years ahead.