The Democratization of Software Development

Published: April 16, 2019Updated: May 06, 2022
2 min to read
The Democratization of Software Development

In the recent past the domain of software development was an exclusive operation dominated by tech staff. Now businesses and developers work together and the process is much more collaborative.

The reason for this is the development cloud-based and as-a-service development which has made access to development platforms easier than ever before.

The movement away from highly skilled employees programming software has seen a dramatic evolution. From the days of punch cards we now have the situation where businesses can access do-it-yourself features, drag and drop interfaces and other tools that make programs more accessible to line managers. The results of this is more innovation, more efficiency and rapidly executed software development.

A feature of the IT sector is that innovation has come in waves. Each development, from the 1990s dotcom boom right through to the use of smartphone apps has led to more and more accessibility for managers. Now there are over 2.2 million apps on Google Play alone with other platforms like Apple boasting 2 million.

A key feature of this new democratization of software development is the huge reduction in cost. Back in the 1990s the cost ran into tens of millions of dollars because of the complex and time-consuming nature of software development. Today, that cost is practically zero and new start-ups are happening all the time.

These new companies are cloud based and have no need for a complex data center. These so-called ‘dotcloud’ companies run on small numbers of employees and take advantage of all the software development platforms available to operate as cheaply as possible.

Human beings are innovative: We will always come up with new and exciting ideas. Today it has never been simpler to make ideas reality. Small scale companies will be launched, the difference is that these will not be exclusive to techies, but will be entrepreneurs and innovators.

Traditionally it has been development that has taken up most of the IT budget. New launches were expensive and therefore limited to those entrepreneurs with the capital to back them. While these budgets would run into millions of dollars now Platform as a Service (PaaS) means that they smaller operations can rely on cloud-based platforms. In addition Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) means that they can access all the available services, infrastructure, skills and systems to take their product development to the next level with less financial risk.

If you’re looking for a company that provides PHP Symfony and other software development services contact us.

Share:
Be the first to receive our articles

Relevant Articles


We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.
We also use cookies to ensure we show relevant content.