Three questions and answers: Will low code end the cloud trend?

The cloud has won, local applications are so 1999 – if you believe the figures from Cloud-Risen. But enterprise applications programmed neatly in-house are no longer the state of the art. Instead, the trend is moving towards skilled workers with low- and no-code tools. We spoke to Thore Rabe from OutSystems about the trend.

Thore Rabe

As Regional Vice President at OutSystems, Dr. Thore Rabe is responsible for sales of the AI-supported low-code platform in the DACH region and Eastern Europe. With over 25 years of experience in IT sales, he has a deep understanding of the market and extensive management experience. He was previously responsible for the EMEA region at the DevOps platform Delphix and at Dell EMC.

You are observing that companies are increasingly deciding against software subscriptions. What orders of magnitude are we talking about here?

We are seeing a trend away from pure SaaS solutions among both smaller SMEs and large companies. It is particularly noticeable that even more traditional companies with thousands of employees are increasingly daring to develop critical applications themselves instead of purchasing them on a permanent subscription basis. This is not just about a few small tools, but in some cases entire core systems that were previously stuck in expensive license agreements for years.

Are the decisions against SaaS based on traditional economic reasons or are data protection and regulations more important?

Both are true. Economic factors such as high license costs or less flexible subscription models that tie up budgets in the long term play an important role here. At the same time, however, we also see a strong desire for more data sovereignty and independent control over systems. It is also easier to adapt customized solutions to new requirements if you are in control of the technology yourself.

One promise made by the cloud giants is that they can use their expertise to build better applications, from features to security. How can it be worthwhile for SMEs with a tight budget to go it alone?

Thanks to low code and AI, the barrier to entry for in-house software projects is falling significantly today. In the past, you needed huge IT teams and an immense budget – Today, even small development teams can build complex systems in weeks rather than years. Many low-code platforms and AI solutions come with security and compliance functions, allowing SMEs to access enterprise-grade standards without having to build everything from scratch.

A good practical example of this is one of our customers, a family-run company. It has reorganized its automated dispensing machines for C parts with low code – in just five months with a two-person development team. Instead of manually comparing 150 scattered databases as before, all the information now comes together on a single platform. The inventories of around 200 vending machines are now recorded there in real time.

As a result, setting up new vending machines now only takes a tenth of the original time because everything is automated and time-consuming on-site checks are no longer necessary. This shows that even medium-sized companies can implement extremely powerful, customized solutions without having to rely on the expensive out-of-the-box offerings of large cloud giants.

Mr. Rabe, thank you very much for your answers! You can find out more about process automation with No Code, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Power Automate and the low-code tool FlowiseAI for linking LLMs in the latest iX articles at heise+.

In the series "Three questions and answers", iX aims to get to the heart of today's IT challenges – regardless of whether it is the user's view in front of the PC, the manager's view or the everyday life of an administrator. Do you have any suggestions from your day-to-day work or that of your users? Whose tips on which topic would you like to read in a nutshell? Then please write to us or leave a comment in the forum.

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