Though it may seem like cloud computing has become a ubiquitous part of our lives over the last few years, it will likely come as a surprise to many to learn that it’s actually still growing. According to one study, cloud computing’s market value will hit $162 billion by 2020, compared to its $67 billion total from 2015. Likewise, 17% of all enterprises run over 1,000 virtual machines in the public cloud – compared to just 13% from 2015, according to another survey.
The reality of the situation is that cloud computing is still technically in its nascent stages – it’s still got quite a bit of growing up to do, which it will continue to do over the next few years. This has a number of key implications for mobile app development in particular regarding both the risks and the rewards it brings with it.
Cloud Computing: Changing the Landscape
On the subject of mobile application development, perhaps the biggest reward of cloud computing is also now its biggest risk: apps are never truly “finished,” they are simply released.
In “the old days,” a team would work hard on a project, refine it until it was the best possible version of itself, then release it into the world. It would be updated occasionally to improve performance or fix certain bugs, but attention would quickly turn to the next big thing. Those days, thanks to the cloud, are long over.
Now, applications (particularly those designed for smartphones and tablets) are essentially in a constant state of development before, during and after their initial release. The concept of the MVP (minimum viable product) has become the new norm, as you no longer have the time required to wait and perfect something before release. Instead, you release an app with the minimum features required to satisfy early adopters and then continue to refine and enhance indefinitely.
Essentially, this means that everything about a particular app – from UI to UX to features to even intention – is and will remain in a constant state of flux. It becomes of critical importance to listen to real users and what they’re trying to tell you – perhaps more than ever before. Because cloud computing makes everything so flexible, there likely will be a constant stream of situations where users essentially say “I know that you just released an app that does X, Y and Z, but what we’d really like is if it did A, B and C.” You’re now in a position to make that pivot in a much easier way (particularly when operating on an SaaS or software-as-a-service) model, but this is still something of a double-edged sword: it means that you actually have to act on that information.
But since the cloud is so cost efficient, guarantees much faster deployment and allows you to dedicate a nearly infinite amount of resources to as many users as you need, all of these are things that you and your team can actually accomplish. The key is that you have to want to – you have to embrace the shift in ideology that cloud computing has brought with it. For some, that will be difficult to the point where they may find their competitive advantage getting smaller by the day.
To that end, the advantages that cloud computing brings with it (along with the potential risks involved) become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Part of the appeal of the cloud is that it not only allows you to remain agile, but it puts you in the best position to respond to market changes and demand in real-time. As a result, those changes and demands are going to become more frequent. This is the world we’re now living in and there truly is no putting that particular genie back in the bottle.
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