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Table of Content
Blog Summary:
This comprehensive guide will offer deep insights to the owners of small, medium, and large-scale businesses looking for Cloud Application Development or migrate their existing IT infrastructure to a cloud environment. It offers valuable knowledge of how to apply cloud development services to help you choose the right cloud service provider and tech stack to build an affordable cloud application.
Table of Content
Running a business is all fun until you have to maintain huge servers and networks. As a business owner, you often have to worry about maintaining your IT infrastructure to keep it running smoothly.
Hold that thought because with cloud application development, you can:
Even if you don’t have a cloud infrastructure yet and are still managing physical servers, you can migrate all your applications, files, services, data, and inventory to the cloud. Investing in cloud migration services is a wise decision, as projected by the Polaris Market Research, which is set to reach USD 70 billion by 2032.
However, choosing the right cloud services, costs, downtime, and migration of large databases can become a challenge. In this blog, we’ll attempt to solve these challenges to give you clarity on cloud application development.
A cloud application does not run on a personal computer; it runs on the Internet. While a user interacts with it through the web or a browser, the remote server located in a distant location handles the data exchange. The most common examples are Google Drive, Zoom, Google Meet, Spotify, Netflix, Slack, Dropbox, and Figma.
Hence, if you want to build a similar cloud application, you need to know the basics of how to store your data on the cloud. Since a cloud app is not hosted on a local server, you would need a cloud environment to develop it.
This is where Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) come in to provide you with a cloud environment. They provide you with each resource you need to build, manage, and configure your IT infrastructure in such a way that running a business becomes easy.
Here are some things to consider to help you set up an IT infrastructure and get started with your cloud apps:
The next section will let you explore the types of cloud applications that you can develop.
A cloud app uses cloud services and service providers to operate and compute resources.
Large companies with vast amounts of Big Data need help to process it using their IT infrastructure and in-house teams. Hence, they need third-party-owned IT infrastructure that can guide them in using their preferred cloud technologies and deployment models.
For the same reason, web apps have grown in popularity as they don’t operate on the device and use cloud computing models. Let’s take a look at them:
If you’re a small business just starting in the market or a startup with limited resources, developing a SaaS-based cloud application is the ideal solution. You don’t have to build a full-fledged application or software, and you can avail yourself of services and products from SaaS companies on the web.
The vendors can build and maintain the storage, servers, and data centers. Additionally, you can easily deploy individual devices to your organizational teams without having to download and install them.
Popular Examples: Salesforce, Zendesk, HubSpot and Google Workspace.
PaaS offers a platform to build and create apps that meet your business needs. It offers tools and a framework that can be accessed over the Internet. All the data centers and servers are easily accessible and are provided, managed, and maintained by third-party vendors. It’s almost similar to the SaaS model.
The difference is that it serves as a platform for cloud-native application development with ready-to-use tools and an environment. It is ideal for organizations with teams working on a common project who need a common platform to collaborate and smoothen the workflow.
Popular Examples: AWS Lambda, Microsoft Azure, Heroku, and Apprenda.
IaaS serves as the primary layer of all cloud services. Your business doesn’t need to invest in purchasing costly hardware and store it in a physical infrastructure. Everything from data storage to networks, servers, and operating systems can be bought from the cloud.
Instead of a physical IT setup, you have a virtual infrastructure that can be easily scaled. For organizations that want to expand their growth, IaaS is ideal as it helps them store and manage the increased data while paying only for the space and storage they need.
Popular Examples: Google Cloud, IBM, AWS, and Metacloud by Cisco.
Now that you know about the types of cloud applications you can develop, let’s understand why your business needs one.
Transform your operations and boost efficiency by leveraging SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS models.
Interactions with cloud applications are frequent in every modern business. As a business owner, you would definitely understand the importance of the time it takes to transfer data across networks. Working on an email marketing platform? The cloud is at work. Storing files and collecting data? The cloud is at work again.
However, have you ever wondered about the major reason why cloud application development has become so essential? A cloud application reduces the time it takes to transfer information from one place or device to another. And that, too, is fast enough that your users would never experience a delay.
In technical language, this is called network latency. Networks with longer delays or more lags will experience higher latency and vice versa. Some apps require higher latency, while others will need low latency. However, cloud application development with AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure balances out the network latency as needed.
For example, suppose your business is in an industry where you want to build a time-sensitive application, like streaming platforms or multiplayer games. Here, high latency would mean lags, leading to poor performance and user experience.
Use Case: Epic Games with AWS
Since 2018, Epic Games, the leading interactive online gaming platform, has been using AWS to optimize performance, storage, and analytics. Owing to its immense popularity, it smoothly scales its computing capacity with AWS to meet player demand by supporting up to 30 times the load, even in peak times.
With cloud application development services by AWS, it also launched the 3D Unreal Engine and became the platform to host one of the largest live online gaming events, Fortnite.
Services Used: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is used to run Fortnite game servers, backend services, and the website.
Similarly, let’s take an example of an online booking platform where users have to book tickets for accommodations, flights, and rides. If the data from the website’s server is not transferred on time until the page reloads, someone might miss out on the seat they want to book.
Use Case: Booking.com with AWS
Booking.com is one of the world’s largest online travel platforms, whose user experience relies on how it handles peak booking sessions and scales its resources. With millions of customers looking to book last-minute seats and accommodations, AWS helps it handle 150 petabytes of data.
Services used: AWS Professional Services, Amazon SageMaker, and Amazon Bedrock, along with generative AI and ML models to fine-tune personalized booking suggestions.
Thus, developing a cloud application can reap immense benefits for your business. The next section will help you understand all of them.
In today’s lightning-fast world, you can’t afford to wait for an app to delay your users’ response. No business wants its app to load slowly and have a user interface that doesn’t respond to user actions on time. Having a cloud application is highly profitable and beneficial since all the data is stored in a remote server. Here are some of them:
Developing a cloud application is way cheaper than having a physical server infrastructure. Even as your business grows, cloud servers allow you to add servers accordingly and pay only for the resources you need and add.
Leveraging cloud application development services allows you to store data securely, which is a major concern for all small or large organizations. Protecting sensitive data is easier with cloud apps, as they offer built-in data and file encryption. This keeps the data safe from hackers and any unauthorized access.
Data storage issues often pose a challenge when you have physical servers and networks. In-house IT teams will have to spend a lot of time managing them if you don’t have a cloud app development partner to take care of and manage the data issues.
Moreover, compared to local servers, cloud servers offer the flexibility to increase the bandwidth according to your demand.
Data is the most valuable resource, yet it is often hidden beneath customer transactions and business processes. Cloud apps allow you to sort and sift through this data faster, revealing more precise and accurate actionable insights.
The aim of developing a cloud application should be to have a cloud platform that simplifies the architectural decision-making process. Additionally, your organization must be able to modify and scale it as needed with better automation and optimized workloads.
However, migrating to the cloud is a complex process that requires hiring an expert cloud-native application development team by your side to decrease operational costs and support growing needs.
The first step in developing a cloud application is to understand and identify the reason. Do you want to automate workflows, build centralized data centers, or improve data exchange and reporting? A cloud application development company can help you start with the discovery phase to discuss your vision, goals, and desired outcomes.
With the right cloud development partner, the development phase becomes much easier and more manageable. Since cloud app development is an ongoing process, your business might want to add or remove functionality in the future. Having a development team will enable you to get the right services.
Your decision to choose the right architecture, service model, and cloud migration strategy will highly impact the app’s performance, so it is recommended that you consult experts.
They can help you choose the right cloud service provider with tools and features for data storage and processing, scalability, and security that best align with your needs.
They’ll also give you a bird’s eye view of the databases, servers, networks, and fault tolerance of your app. The most common providers include Microsoft Azure, IBM, AWS, GCP, and Oracle.
Cloud applications and solutions usually follow Agile and Scrum development methodologies. The methodology you choose is based on which features you want to prioritize and the level of collaboration that brings out maximum business value.
Working with a cloud application development company will allow you to have a thorough discussion about the entire planning process and how it’s divided into sprints.
For example, if your priority is cross-platform compatibility and real-time interactions, the UI/UX design should be more intuitive with common navigation patterns.
Once the code for the cloud app is up and running across the front end and back end, the most important step is testing and quality assurance. The development experts can help you test if the interface and logic are properly connected with an API.
It also involves unit tests for verifying functionality and load testing to assess app performance under different levels of user activity. Lastly, regular maintenance is crucial for the app to enhance its success, improve user experience, and retain users by updating data security and optimizing performance.
Scale your IT infrastructure with on-demand resources at reduced development costs.
This stage requires a proper understanding of the tech stack you need to develop and integrate your app. Depending on the cloud architecture and features you have chosen, the experts can help you decide on the most affordable and compatible technologies.
Here’s an example of the tech stack you can choose for cloud application development services:
You can choose from Java, Python, Ruby, Node.js, and Typescript, depending on your needs. If you need rapid app development, Python is simple and readable. If you’re a large enterprise, Java is more robust.
Application databases are the most important part of cloud applications since they manage and store all data. You can choose from relational and NoSQL databases like Amazon RDS, CosmosDB, Firebase Realtime DB, Akamai, and Cloudant, among others.
Frameworks are another crucial part of the cloud app tech stack since the apps work on mobile and web browsers. Some of these options include Spring Boot, Flask, Django, Tailwind CSS, Materialize, etc.
Selecting a cloud platform requires understanding your app’s model and architecture. You can choose from SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, and FaaS app development and a public, hybrid, or private deployment model.
Depending on your choice, Microsoft Azure, GCP, AWS, and IBM are your alternatives. Docker, Openshift, and Kubernetes are also available for containerization and orchestration.
Lastly, you would also need other utilities, including business intelligence tools like Optimizely, Heap, Recurly, Twilio, and TransmogrifAI and project management platforms like JIRA, Salesforce, DocuSign, UXPin, and InVision. For DevOps, you can invest in Jenkins, New Relic, Bit Bucket, DataDog, and Sauce Labs.
Deploying cloud solutions offers the opportunity to expand cloud storage and computing power, which is a decision that needs to be made in the early stages. This requires analyzing the load estimates, hosting services, and data access points for maximum security. Average costs will be in the bracket of USD 15,000 to USD 3,00,000.
Hence, having a cloud-native application development team with data architects, quality analysts, and designers will guide you in the right direction and approach for APIs and content delivery networks (CDNs).
Here’s an overview of the costs based on the types of cloud apps you can develop.
SaaS Cloud Apps: They range from USD 40,000 to USD 2,80,000, depending on your choice of app integration, user interfaces, and data security.
PaaS Cloud Apps: Depending on the resources, instances, and cloud service providers, they usually have yearly subscription costs between USD 400 and USD 700. Integration with CRMs, APIs, and payment gateways will add more expenses.
IaaS Cloud Apps: The cost of these apps can vary depending on the servers, on-demand networks, data storage, and resource usage. Yearly subscription costs start at USD 350 to USD 600.
Here’s a tentative cost estimate of development stages and factors:
| Stage and Factors | Estimated Costs (USD) | Estimated Development Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Project scope | 800 – 2,500 | 18 hours |
| Requirement analysis | 700 – 2,300 | 22 hours |
| Prototypes and wireframes | 1000 – 2,800 | 35 hours |
| Tech stack | 7000 – 18,000 | Paid one time |
| Development team | 40 – 120 per hour/expert | 5 – 15 weeks |
| Interface and navigation | 1000 – 3,000 | 35 hours |
| App testing and QA | 600 – 2,800 | 38 hours |
| App maintenance | 1,500 – 3,500 / month | 25 hours/month |
| Cloud setup | 300 – 4,000 | Based on region, OS, and instance size |
| Business Analytics | 400 – 6,000 | Based on the time zone |
Building cloud-based applications is often challenging because you have to ensure they perform at their maximum potential and yet remain secure. Most of these are generated because half of these apps exist in an external environment.
Here are some of these, along with some best practices not to run into them:
Since cloud apps heavily rely on browsers, they often become vulnerable to data breaches and unauthorized user access.
Tip: Implement strong authentication measures and patch updates by doing regular security audits. Your cloud provider should also comply with GDPR standards.
Cloud apps attract millions of users at a time, which can become challenging if the resources are not allocated properly. The right amount of networks and servers is necessary to overcome the challenges of over-allocation and vice versa.
Tip: Use caching and load-balancing mechanisms to ensure user requests are evenly distributed. You can also use auto-scaling to adjust resources according to traffic.
Cloud apps often need to be integrated with third-party systems and other cloud services. If the APIs and communication protocols are mismatched, the data exchange can become a challenge.
Tip: Use middleware and design custom APIs that are secure enough to control user access using OAuth and JSON Web Token (JWT).
Building a cloud-based application is an ongoing process, and you must keep up with changing user needs. To succeed, you must prioritize scalability, security, and user experience by choosing cloud computing technologies that best drive your business forward.
On this journey, you can count on Moon Technolabs, where our experts have a solid understanding of cloud concepts, cloud security measures, and DevOps testing tools and offer:
Check out how we developed a cloud-based POS software that can be seamlessly integrated with your existing systems.
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Jayanti Katariya is the CEO of Moon Technolabs, a fast-growing IT solutions provider, with 18+ years of experience in the industry. Passionate about developing creative apps from a young age, he pursued an engineering degree to further this interest. Under his leadership, Moon Technolabs has helped numerous brands establish their online presence and he has also launched an invoicing software that assists businesses to streamline their financial operations.
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