A quick overview of Project Neo – OutSystems cloud application platform

We’re living in an era where everything around us is digital, nothing is too far away in virtual reality, and anything is achievable with a simple click. The world around us is as digital as it could get and we’re only bracing ourselves for more digital transformation in the future. 

In the middle of it all, developers are bridging the gap between technology and users by building the right application at the right time. However, are the current application development practices enough? How can businesses meet the continuously evolving customer needs? Are our development platforms scalable enough to tackle the challenges of a growing customer base? 

In this article, we discuss various essential features of modern applications and how a business can build the same with appropriate low-code development platforms like OutSystems and its latest proposition – Project Neo.

What makes scalability essential for modern applications?

The number of internet users is growing every day; it was reported that there are 4.9 billion internet users across the globe in January 2021.  Easier access to smartphones and an influx in life-simplifying mobile applications have led an entire generation to depend upon digital technology for their everyday needs. This is what makes scalability so important- it enables applications to remain high-performing even when there’s unprecedented growth in their user base.

A sustainable business needs future-ready applications that can provide great user experiences at all times to as many users as possible. Scalability ensures the same! If an application is not built with scalability, it runs the risk of frequent downtime, slow speed, unsatisfactory customer experience, and delayed response to changing market trends. To sum it up, any business idea that has the potential to grow exponentially needs a highly scalable app to meet future needs. 

This is where OutSystems comes in, building applications fast, right, and for the future. Let’s dive deeper into how OutSystems leverages low-code development technology to support modern application development at its best.

Why is OutSystems the preferred choice for modern application development?

Hailed as the world’s leading low-code development platform, OutSystems accelerates digital transformation, develops enterprise-grade applications, and enables legacy modernization at 3X speed. Powered by AI tools and a visually-driven development model, it drastically lowers the development time, enables automated deployment with a single click, and is designed to scale with evolving requirements. Here’s a quick look at how OutSystems has managed to revolutionize the digital ecosystem and boost modern application development with its one-of-a-kind features 

•  
• High Agility: Modern business landscape is fast-moving and organizations must evolve rapidly or face the consequences. OutSystems helps businesses stay agile and up-to-date with rapid development, faster integration, and improved developer productivity. 
• Easy-to-train: OutSystems prevents project discontinuity due to employee churn as it’s an easy-to-learn platform with fully-evolved self-learning paths and a collaborative environment. As a result, your development teams can maintain continuity of the code without depending upon only certain developers. 
• Enterprise-grade security: OutSystems ensures that each upgrade is backed by the latest security features, every release is assessed for security vulnerabilities, and team members have role-based access to prevent security breaches. 

But, is OutSystems enough?

Presently, over 14 million people use applications built on OutSystems and it continues to scale new heights with better features and upgrades. From building applications and websites to workplace modernization, OutSystems has its footprints in every aspect related to the digital economy. 

However, does OutSystems encompass every characteristic to build modern applications? Can there be a better platform that could redefine the productivity and capabilities of development teams? 

The answer is both yes and no. While OutSystems fulfills every requirement to speed up and enhance the application development process, there’s always room for a modern platform that could improve the overall productivity even more. Ironically, nobody understands this fact more than OutSystems and its team and this is why they have unveiled a next-generation platform that promises to be better and bigger. 

To find out what it is, put on your reading glasses. 

What is Project Neo?

“We are envisioning a world where 100 million developers are creating apps used by a billion people every day” – This is how Paulo Rosado, CEO at OutSystems, introduced Project Neo, the most ambitious technology platform launched in our history, at Next Step 2021. 

A cloud-native platform that is all set to redefine developer experience and empower them with massive productivity, Project Neo will prove to be a game-changer in the world of low-code development technology. With Project Neo, organizations will be empowered to build cloud-native, internet-scale applications meant for millions of users without compromising on expressiveness and capability. 

What are the fundamental goals of Project Neo by OutSystems?

In his keynote speech at Next Step 2021, Paulo mentioned that Project Neo reflects everything that Team OutSystems learned while working with its developer community and has been designed to fulfill three fundamental goals. These are – 

#1: Achieve unrivalled performance

When you launch a cloud-native app in the market, you’re in direct competition with elite tech companies that are backed by teams bigger in both size and capabilities. Thus, they’re able to evolve faster and better. With Project Neo’s high productivity development and modern CI/CD practices, you will now be able to “deliver significant changes in hours, multiple times a day”. As a result, you will now be in the same league as the global tech giants without having to invest in huge teams, complex codes, and expensive platforms. 

#2: Reduce cost associated with building scalable cloud applications

Building cloud applications that serve millions of users around the globe involve a considerable amount of risk and expense. Project Neo aims to reduce this cost and help you build scalable, enterprise-grade cloud applications with a simple-to-use low-code development platform that encourages citizen developers while providing best-in-class security and functionalities.

#3: Automate cloud application updates with minimal impact

Project Neo is an evergreen platform where you won’t have to pause your development process or tie your development team in cloud application upgrades just to deploy updates. Due to its state-of-the-art infrastructure,  all the upgrades will be automated without having any impact on the performance or the speed of development. 

What are the benefits of Project Neo by OutSystems?

“On average, teams today have to deal with 10 times more code and complexity than just 10 years ago”, said Gonçalo Gaiolas, VP of Product Management at OutSystems, as he discussed Project Neo at length in the keynote speech. The core of OutSystems has always been about simplifying software development and accelerating its speed without increasing any technical debt. 

Project Neo, too, is an extension of this purpose with next-gen tech to combat the challenges of our future digital landscape. Here’s a glance at how Project Neo aims to benefit development teams –

#1: 100X developer productivity

As per experts at OutSystems, working with Project Neo will make you feel as if you’ve added 1000 talented developers to your team! Needless to say, it mainly aims to strengthen development teams with massive productivity irrespective of their size and skill set. With automated updates and applications that auto-scale to millions, developers are free to innovate and respond to changes without having to worry about routine aspects of application development.

Be it managing an advanced cloud application runtime and resolving code dependencies to performing regression tests, Project Neo executes every critical but undifferentiated activity so that your developers can focus on innovation and productivity.

#2: State-of-the-art CI/CD practices

Continuous integration, development, and deployment are an integral part of the modern application development process and are often what makes or breaks the delivery quality. 

Project Neo takes care of these with a state-of-the-art architecture that automates DevOps and CI/CD practices so that your cloud-first applications are highly secure and always up-to-date. Consequently, the apps already in production have a smooth sailing and those that have been launched register absolutely no impact on their performance.

#3: Modern cloud-first architecture

As we mentioned earlier, Project Neo puts every development team in the list of elite cloud-native companies barring the expense and expertise involved. The platform is built on a sophisticated architecture that is massively scalable, highly secure, and always up-to-date with cloud upgrades. 

Where to from here?

In today’s digital economy, ideas are the real assets; and, if technology cannot help the right ideas flourish at the right time with the right scale, then, how does it serve its purpose? 

Project Neo was conceived with this aforementioned thought of empowering digital disruptors to innovate freely and without the constraints of complex development practices. With Project Neo by OutSystems, even citizen developers can bring their idea alive and compete with elite cloud-first development teams. It not only leverages low-code development technology efficiently but goes one step further by incorporating cloud-native technology and automated DevOps practices. 

Already in use by its first set of users, it is ready to be launched in 2022 and revamp the way low-code development platforms operate. Until then, let’s wait and prepare for delivering serious productivity for serious apps!