Low-code platforms are one of the simplest and easiest ways to get your hands on an elastic and scalable cloud architecture–one where you can continue to add load without having to refactor or re-architect your app–and one that allows you to only pay for what you use.
In fact, high-scale cloud architectures previously required a certified cloud architect, infrastructure engineer, or development team to weave together many elements of a full stack. This was the case even if the stack was made up of mainstream cloud infrastructure products.
But, not anymore. A full stack, high scale architecture can be made available to development teams at the push of a button–with a wait time of 15 seconds or so.
This scalability encompasses both the data and traffic side of the user experience. With a cloud-scale architecture, your database can handle as much data as you need. And your user growth will never pose a challenge because of low-code serverless architecture.
In this article, we cover cloud scalability, its benefits, the difference between scale and elasticity, and how low-code solves for cloud scalability and elasticity.
Cloud scalability is the ability of your app to handle increased traffic or storage demands from your users without additional work or upfront costs from your side.
This means you don't have to build your architecture and over-provision resources before you actually need them. Yet, the ability to scale is available when you need it.
From an end user viewpoint, it means your end users can continue to use your app without any performance issues whether you have a single user or a million users.
This is also true if your app is more data-intensive rather than user-intensive. For example, your app will be able to scale from little data to loads of data automatically.
And the development team is not going to need to do any additional work to support this sudden surge in capacity requirements.
Because the scalable cloud does all of this for you.
There are many benefits to scalable cloud architecture when using low-code technology. Most of them fall under reducing development costs and time to market:
Overall, having a scalable cloud brings you all the potential upsides with almost no downside. Because even if your project becomes a viral hit among your users, you will be fine.
Your users' experience will be uninterrupted by the sudden inflow of new users. And, you will sleep better knowing your app can handle anything your users throw at it.
This is not a small thing. It is very hard to build a digital brand and very easy to destroy if you can’t serve thousands or millions of users. The will just go elsewhere.
So whatever project you're making, make sure it's built on a scalable cloud to avoid disastrous scenarios.
Scalability refers to a more long-term (semi-permanent) change in the capacity of the cloud application. In contrast, elasticity refers to daily/hourly capacity changes–when usage goes up and down. Spikes in usage can even happen by the hour or minute.
For example, scalability enables you to go from one to a million users (and beyond). But let's say those users are primarily active around noon. Then elasticity allows you to increase your computing capacity around noon and decrease it throughout the rest of the day.
In addition, elasticity allows you to have lower infrastructure costs, regardless of your number of users. Because your app will never be uniformly used throughout the day. If nothing else, your users need to sleep sometimes. And, they mostly sleep during the same time interval (a.k.a. during the night).
For a full background on 8base’s cloud scalability, see this article’s section on Resource Scalability on 8base.
8base is a low-code platform that is not only scalable but also allows you to develop both web applications (front-end) and server applications (backend).
App Builder allows you to build scalable web applications out of the box. It uses a simple drag-and-drop graphical interface which you can use to quickly build your app.
It has prebuilt components that are most frequently used in almost any project. However, you are not limited to using only these components. You can create custom ones yourself very easily. All you need is a little bit of knowledge about JavaScript. And this is something every developer already has.
8base Backend also uses a graphical interface with which you can build your data tables, and you're pretty much done:
Depending on the number of tables your business logic requires, your entire backend could be completely ready within 1 to 30 minutes.
But the most important part, low-code technology doesn't restrict you in any way.
You can develop anything you would be able to create with traditional programming (completely customizable). And you are not locked into an 8base platform because your project is entirely portable. This is possible because it's built on top of existing widespread technologies like TypeScript, MySQL, GraphQL, and AWS.
The main benefit of a low-code technology is that it increases development productivity by 3-5X. It is already here, and it is here to stay.
Without low code, it would be like refusing to use code libraries in traditional programming and trying to reinvent the wheel by coding everything from scratch. It would simply be impossible to win in any market competition.
Any company that starts a new project and doesn't use low-code will be severely disadvantaged. This means higher costs, slower development, and requiring more developers with higher skills. It simply cannot compete against companies that use low-code technology.
When low code is combined with a high-scale, elastic data and middle tier, you just don’t have to worry about scale the same way. (Now, if a developer decides to create a crazy GraphQL query, good coding practices still apply :).
The easiest, safest, and most cost-effective way to unlock scalability in your cloud architecture is through low-code technology.
We're excited about helping you achieve amazing results.
