8 Software Development Trends That Will Dominate

The world of technology is one such place that is never still. Change is the only factor that, we can think of, is still and this change occurs almost every fortnight. Though, in the early days of the internet, it would have been a miracle or amazing thing to know that change is happening every time; over the years, we are merely getting used to these miracles. For example, you might know about the voice search trends. Speech recognition, which falls under the umbrella of various types of software, has a huge impact on the technical world now.

Surprisingly, interesting and as well as the sad part of this change is that whatever we see as a trend today might not stay there to bid goodbye to the sunset tomorrow. Because when a new change is introduced, the old one must budge or leave to make space to accommodate the fresh one. The software development industry with its vast number of channels finds it difficult to cope up with the changing trends when they are forced to offer something different and meet the expectations of their consumers.

But, trust us. There are trends like SEO trends, that have stayed over time and will continue to persist, while there are those that have stopped to exist because all they tried to do was merely survive. The software industry is a demanding place and unless you are ready to fit into these demands, there is no guarantee for how long you would stay.

This can be improvised if you can identify the pulse of your audiences and what makes them go gaga over the trends, which depends on the influence that the technology introduced by you is capable of making, while creating a forever space for itself. So, as we move through the year 2019, let us find out which are those trends that we will carry from the past years and which are the ones that will be newly introduced.

Latest Software Development Trends

We have hand-picked some interesting and unique software development trends that are set to change the face of the industry.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is Closer to Becoming The Need of The Hour

You might have been witnessing businesses pondering in-depth about AI and its uses. Also, you might have seen many of them introducing this for their business as they believe it to change the way things are happening now. This AI introduction has brought about a tremendous change in big data, smartphones as well as voice-initiated virtual assistants. With the need for technology to flourish, we need experts and professionals, who are experts at handling these.

So, this would be one of the major needs or demands of the year 2019. We would be on the hunt for chief data officers (CDOs) and data scientists.

How AI and machine learning (ML) will be playing an important role in transforming business over time:

• Smart or AI-driven products and services would change the value proposition.
• The customer experience would be digitally driven.
• The processes otherwise managed manually would be automated.

More than 70% of the software development agencies will start introducing and implementing AI-driven applications across multiple functions or services from the past year 2018. Since AI has an unbelievable impact on the business market, the early birds (first ones to adopt this) will reap high end benefits of the same.

Some of the companies have already started implementing AI and ML-led solutions that helps in managing a number of their operations and functionalities smoothly with a speed and accuracy incomparable with that of human efficiency.

A number of organizations have already realized the power of these machine-led applications, which has resulted in a number of people losing their jobs. The company finds these at ease as they can work wonders. If you do not have an in-house AI development team, you can get help from professional outsourcing software development agencies. A number of them are offering standard and affordable solutions.

Internet of Things (IoT) Has Already Started its Role

Everywhere, you can find data generators. Starting from the kind of shoes you wear to the way you hold the steering of your car, the data generated from each of these are used to refine and provide you with further better services in future. How do these connected devices actually work?

They start by collecting enormous volumes of data, which is one reason why the companies within the IT industry are finding out techniques to process data faster and cheaper rates. This is where we are introduced to edge computing, which will enact a great role in the year 2019, enabling the IoT devices to provide a better output by performing real-time analysis at a faster rate, though the connectivity might be very poor.

The data that is processed at the network’s edge or lying near a device with the help of a mesh of micro-data centers is usually referred to as edge computing.

This is how companies port all the required data to a centralized data center, which helps in saving a lot of time and money. When you get to analyze the data at a closer level, you get the following benefits:

• No or minimal inactivity
• The internet load is reduced
• Improvised security and privacy
• Data management costs are lower

Though such things will take over, the cloud will stay back playing an important role in IoT as it helps to gather critical data.

The Growing Demand for Blockchain Developers

Bitcoins and Ethereum are the talks of the town. In the past year, there was a lot of hype created by the cryptocurrency trend. Bitcoin is a term that has emerged out of this. Blockchain driven by bitcoins will be seen ruling the industry this year and over years to come. Further to this, we will be witnessing bitcoins and blockchains exploring various levels of the business functionality online.

In the year 2017, a number of leading organizations have presented us with their blockchain frameworks. These include the big names, such as Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon and even, IBM – in fact, it has been closely working with various other organizations to bring tie up for fostering the blockchain technology. More than 55% of the organizations in the world will be seen launching their company-specific blockchain platforms.

We would witness companies coming up with their own kind of blockchain apps and functionalities, which would enhance the need for acquiring learned and skilled blockchain development professionals.

It is expensive to develop and test these blockchain applications. But, the benefits of the blockchain applications for your business are numerous as it will help you in the long run.

The Need of Cyber Security

Remember the hullabaloo created by WannaCry? How can we forget it, right? Most of us were trapped with no idea on how to protect the information supposed to be most critical for our organization. The main objective of all organizations (profit or non-profit) is to protect and safeguard their information with no compromise.

Cyber Security needs to be taken more seriously on both the internal and external front of any business. It is important to ensure that your software and other internal functionalities are safe and secure. We are taking up all kinds of measures to ensure that no vulnerabilities will be attacking our system through the development phase, but what about the later stage? A number of cybersecurity setups are booming across the globe with an aim to provide external security though you might have taken up extra measures to protect it from the inside.

We can expect an increase in the investment across cyber security services and products by US$1t over and after the next five years’ time, globally. There is less number of experienced professionals and experts who can get the set up right, though companies are ready to spend a fortune to get things in place.

So, software development enthusiasts if you are looking for a new and fresh experience and something where you can exercise your ideas, then this is it. Around 40% of the cyber attacks have been reported by small and medium enterprises.

So, get help from a professional expert to fix the cybersecurity issues on the internal and external sides of a system starting from the design phase.

Virtual Reality is the Next Big Thing

We have all been keeping a watch out for this next big thing for a few years. And, without keeping us wait for long, the high-end VR headsets emerged, though it wasn’t acquired by many. It is reported that the sales of these were less than one million units. Of course, HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift created a lot of hype, which was not worth it when it came to the utilization numbers. This would become the next big thing, if:

• The prices go lower
• It gets a comfortable gear
• It provides or exhibits a more appealing content

So, it has been high time that you started searching for a professional VR developer and also, looking out for ways to reduce the costs of developing and operating the newly emerging technology, which will soon be a hit. Let us keep our fingers crossed to witness the magic that will unveil in a short while.

Progressive Web Apps

Websites that come exhibit an appearance of native mobile apps are referred to as progressive web apps. All the features of a traditional mobile app, including the functionalities and capabilities, are embedded within a progressive web app. The major goal of progressive web apps is to enhance user engagement, increase conversions and can be applied across various industry domains, such as health care, banking and finance, travel, e-commerce, and media.

Without generating any kind of friction, progressive web apps are built to run across mobiles, tablets, desktops, ensuring the same kind of seamless experience is imparted to the users every time. Experts are of the opinion that the load times, click through rates and an increase in mobile users are experienced upon implementing progressive web apps.

When Click Through Rates increase as a result of faster load times and people reaching the app via mobile devices, engagement, and conversion rates are automatically hiked, leaving the business with better and excellent results.

Though progressive web apps have been part of software development for a while now, going forward, it would be one on the top of the list of software development trends.

Low-code Development

Somewhere back in the year 2011, this software started being implemented as part of the software development process. People with minimal or no technical expertise started using this low-code development software to create enterprise apps targeting certain company requirements, which would require automatic code generation, visual programming and even drag-and-drop modules.

In the year 2018, low-code platforms came back into action and the trend is expected to continue over the upcoming days. It has been a key to non-technical people to work on software in no time – as it also helps in speeding up the development process in a short span of time.

However, we can see that it might not be the best fit if you are looking for a one-size-stop solution. But if you are looking for a variety of choices, then custom software would be the best one for open-ended processes. Low-code development platforms are well-suited for apps that come with workflows that have a clear structure and organized objectives.

We Would See More of JavaScript

No doubt, JavaScript would rule the software development world for the next millennia until something that can surpass it would arrive. Already more than 70% of developers are using it – the figures are expected to rise.

According to GitHub, JavaScript is one of the languages that has one of the highest contributors from various organizations, and public and private repositories, from around the world. Node.js is one of the most popular tools according to a Stack overflow survey and this means JavaScript will continue being the popular choice in software over the coming years.

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