DYOA boosts demand for PaaS

Research commissioned by Progress Software has revealed that the new age of 'develop your own application' (DYOA), much like bring your own device (BYOD), is driving demand for rapid application development platform as a service (PaaS) technologies. Conducted by independent market research firm Vanson Bourne, the research surveyed IT decision-makers in the US, UK, France, Germany, Benelux, Australia, Brazil and Singapore.

Premie Naicker, MD of AIGS, says the survey revealed demand for PaaS architecture from organisations looking for faster development and deployment cycles is skyrocketing. She believes DYOD, just as BYOD and BYOA have done, is shaping the way businesses work today.

"Developing applications to boost your businesses' productivity and improve business processes has never been easier, but there is still a need to better these cycles by making them quicker and better," Naicker says. "This is where PaaS comes in, as the survey has clearly shown that the benefits of using a rapid application development PaaS to improve speed and productivity are many, and that people are beginning to realise this."

Naicker explains a rapid application development PaaS solution allows custom business applications to be developed quickly, and deployed using point-and-click-type tools in a Web browser. Around 85% of survey respondents admitted there was a demand within their businesses to lower the time it takes to develop and deploy applications. "This stresses that the DYOA trend is being driven on the whole at a business, rather than IT, level."

Moreover, the research showed demand for rapid application development is coming from the highest levels of the company, with 43% reporting the projects were being directed by C-suite influencers, while 47% came from existing customers or partners. In addition, 70% of those surveyed said they are either already using PaaS solutions for application development or have plans to use them the future.

Another key finding showed that 47% of DYOA is being done by sales and marketing teams, the largest percentage among all respondents, while 44%% said finance teams were developing and deploying their own applications. "Speed also won over high control, with 27% saying that they had opted for platforms that favour the former over the latter," Naicker points out.

Also, just over half (54%) of existing PaaS users revealed that it has already helped them reduce the time it takes to develop and deploy applications, while 51% said PaaS had helped to reduce costs.

Finally, 47% of those polled said the use of PaaS had given them more capacity for innovation within the business, such as finding new ways to combine existing resources, or exploring more innovative ways of using mobile.