Libor Bešenyi (CTO)

Should Cloud only play the role of "intelligent" hosting, the digital transformation would be just a seasonal affair, soon forgotten.

There is a talk of upcoming digital transformation everywhere. We can feel "something big" in the air, we just can’t put our fingers on it. When talking with specialists on Cloud, we get the impression that Cloud is one big fashionable curiosity. Everyone is curious what role Cloud will play in the neglected digital transformation. I will try to look at it from the perspective of software development, an area of my interest.

In the beginning, there wasn't a word, there was boolean

However strange it may seem, in the beginning of IT was a computer that had no application. The computer was therefore not created as something the mankind needed, it was created as something that mankind could create and it was given its meaning in time.

In times long gone, computer programs had a definite function. Such as to transport astronauts to the Moon.

Components

Computers found wider application in storage of quantities of data. First programs stored data and programs allowed quick access to them.

It turned out that programs need certain pieces of code that are repeated regularly, such as editing window, note to data, date selection and the like. Object-oriented programming is created and with it the first visual components.

Modules

Applications are becoming increasingly complex. To achieve sustainability, modularity arises. Applications consist of smaller parts which are integrated into a single unit. Suddenly we have definitions of dials and store cards working with them.

Information systems

The pressure of business on new functionalities creates huge mess in the design of applications. Seemingly separate modules are suddenly interconnected and dependencies erase the benefits of modularity. Any change in one module may cause an unexpected error in a completely different module. Entropy penetrates the whole system and the frustration of users is growing:

Order into this chaos is introduced by a new enterprise architecture that separates modules to independent applications, communicating with each other through a central node: middleware.

The user has the impression of working with one application, however, they actually work with many applications that are dynamically added to the system. Google is a wonderful example, you can jump from mail client to document repository and the like. Concept of Software as a Service (SaaS) is created.

Comming soon: Cloud

Programmers have not rested for long. Business brings new challenges! Individual applications are so robust that they need to be re-used in other systems. But these are strictly interconnected. Users who can access them are centrally managed. B2B integration level is mostly at the level of services - UI is prepared by each side separately.

However, the providers themselves are beginning to feel the need for individual applications to be re-used in other business models - for example in mobile phones.

Among other things, Google teaches us not to force users to do things the way we imagine them. Why not offer parts of our systems to the public and let them do with it as they see fit, even if their core business is linked to our competitors? It is still better to have at least some of their business than nothing.

This brings questions of authorization, security and data storage - the answer is Cloud in the form of PaaS (Platform as a Service).

As programmers, we are all familiar with the frustration of our users, who complete, for example, a questionnaire which resembles the products of the 90s. However, company core business does not allow us to address the technology of questionnaires similarly to competing products that do not solve anything else. The situation is similar to the situation in the time before the arrival of components. Which company could have afforded to have a notes editor as good as Word?

Future

The approach described above is not universally accepted and Cloud is still considered to be only a really good hosting of our existing information systems. However, with the arrival of new PaaS such as Azure Active Directory, this new model is becoming reality. Pressure on customization of UI is addressed by MVC and DevOps take on a new meaning. If our product is integrated in a tangle of other products, conventional approaches to development will no longer suffice.

In cooperation with AutoCont and Microsoft we have come closer to the future development of a new generation of products. SaaS interconnected with isolated PaaS will create a new trend in business - BPaaS. The first products such as Einstein from SalesForce are already here. However, we in Xolution ICT do not think that software from one company will determine the future. We believe in the variability of solutions that Cloud offers, we just need to catch this wave and change the perception of software development!