The study’s authors set out to determine what risks businesses and organizations faced as a result of the widespread use of spreadsheets across industries.

Since their inception, spreadsheets have been widely used in many scientific and mission-critical applications such as linear programming and regression, control systems, statistical radiobiological evaluation, drug-alcohol interaction, patient specimen collection, neurosciencea nd nuclear fuel production. Many decision support systems (DSS) in the commercial and social sectors are built on spreadsheets to generate useful information for strategic decision making.

Unfortunately, businesses are relying on information that is riddles with errors.

Along with the high popularity of spreadsheet applications, it was found that about 94% of the spreadsheets in use contained faults.

The authors go on to highlight the potential issues associated with making decisions based on faulty data.

Faulty spreadsheets could result in business risks including: (a) loss in revenue, profit, cash, assets, and tax, (b) mispricing and poor decision-making, and (c) financial failure. If faulty spreadsheets are used in critical areas such as clinical medicine and nuclear operations, catastrophic consequences may result. Hence, spreadsheet quality assurance (QA) is a serious issue that cannot be ignored.

The study found that one of the biggest causes of errors in spreadsheets is the low barrier-to-entry for their use and programming.

A major reason for a high number of faulty spreadsheets is the accelerating trend in end-user computing (or end-user programming) over the last few decades. Spreadsheet development, now a prominent example of end-user computing, has shifted from being often done by well-trained IT professionals to something millions of non-technical departmental end users or end-user programmers are now responsible to do. As most end-user programmers are not well trained in software development and testing, it is not surprising that many spreadsheets they developed are poorly coded and inadequately tested. Consequently, these spreadsheets are likely to contain faults that are not properly detected and removed before release for daily operational use

Could This Portend Issues With Low-Code/No-Code Programming?

In many ways, spreadsheets are the original low-code development model, giving non-technical users an easy way to manipulate data and create what is essentially very basic programs. Unfortunately, as the study discovered, without a more thorough understanding of programming concepts and techniques, fundamental issues quickly become apparent, such as spreadsheets that “are poorly coded and inadequately tested,” and ultimately contain errors.

While some low/no-code platforms provide better guardrails for new users than spreadsheets, the potential for inexperienced users to create poorly designed applications is greater than ever. What’s more, increasing cybersecurity place greater emphasis than ever before on good development practices, something that many of those using low/no-code tools lack.

The above study illustrates the need for companies and organizations to devote resources to proper training of their employees, even for things that may at first glance seem designed for use with very little training.

The study was conducted by Professor Pak-Lok Poon, Man Fai Lau, Yuen Tak Yu, and Sau-Fun Tang, from School of Engineering and Technology, Central Queensland University; Department of Computing Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology; Department of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong; and The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, respectively.

The Evolution of Low Code: From Concept to Mainstream Adoption

Low code development platforms have evolved from niche tools into essential components of modern IT strategies. Initially conceived as a way to bridge the gap between business users and IT professionals, low code platforms are now at the forefront of digital transformation initiatives across industries. According to Gartner, the low code market is expected to reach $13.8 billion by 2023, a clear indication of its growing influence.

One of the early pioneers in this space is Skuid, a Chattanooga-based company that garnered attention with its innovative codeless app development toolkit. In 2017, Skuid raised $25 million, signaling investor confidence in the future of low code. As Evan Kirstel, a prominent B2B tech influencer, tweeted, “Skuid’s success highlights the growing appetite for platforms that simplify app development and empower users.” Skuid’s platform allows users to create highly customized applications without writing code, making it a popular choice among businesses looking to accelerate their digital transformation.

The Power of Low Code: Democratizing Development

At its core, low code is about empowerment—empowering businesses to innovate faster, empowering non-developers to contribute to application development, and empowering organizations to be more agile in responding to market changes. Traditional software development often involves lengthy processes, requiring extensive collaboration between business units and IT departments. Low code platforms, however, provide visual interfaces and drag-and-drop tools that simplify these processes, enabling faster development cycles.

“Low code is not just a trend; it’s a revolution in how we think about software development,” says Steve Rotter, a tech strategist. “It’s shifting the economics of development from scarcity to abundance, allowing companies of all sizes to create bespoke applications that meet their specific needs.”

One of the most significant benefits of low code is its ability to bridge the skills gap in the tech industry. With a growing demand for digital solutions and a shortage of skilled developers, low code platforms offer a viable solution by enabling non-developers to take on development tasks. This capability is particularly valuable in industries where the pace of change is rapid, such as financial services and healthcare.

Real-World Applications: How Low Code is Transforming Industries

The impact of low code is being felt across various sectors, from finance to healthcare to manufacturing. In the financial services industry, for instance, low code is helping organizations respond to regulatory changes, improve customer experiences, and streamline operations. Bendigo Bank, an Australian financial institution, went “all-in” on the customer journey by adopting a low code application platform. This strategic move allowed the bank to quickly develop and deploy customer-facing applications that significantly enhanced user experience. “Low code allowed us to focus on what really matters—delivering value to our customers—without getting bogged down in complex coding,” a Bendigo Bank representative said.

In healthcare, low code platforms are being used to develop applications that improve patient care and streamline administrative processes. For example, hospitals are using low code to create applications that manage patient records, track treatment plans, and ensure compliance with regulations. These applications can be developed and updated quickly, allowing healthcare providers to respond to changes in patient needs and regulatory requirements in real time.

Manufacturing is another industry where low code is making a significant impact. Manufacturers are using low code platforms to develop applications that manage supply chains, monitor equipment performance, and optimize production processes. These applications provide real-time data and analytics, enabling manufacturers to make informed decisions and improve operational efficiency.

The Economics of Low Code: A Shift from Scarcity to Abundance

One of the most profound shifts brought about by low code is in the economics of software development. Traditionally, bespoke software development has been a costly and time-consuming endeavor, often requiring teams of highly skilled developers and extensive resources. This model has limited the ability of smaller businesses to compete with larger enterprises in terms of digital innovation.

However, low code platforms have changed this dynamic by providing businesses with the tools they need to develop custom applications quickly and affordably. As Rotter explains, “Low code platforms are changing the economics of software development by making it accessible to a much broader audience. This shift from scarcity to abundance is empowering businesses of all sizes to innovate and compete in the digital age.”

The economic benefits of low code are not limited to cost savings. By enabling faster development cycles, low code platforms help businesses bring products to market more quickly, respond to customer needs in real time, and adapt to changes in the competitive landscape. This agility is critical in today’s fast-paced business environment, where the ability to innovate quickly can be a key differentiator.

Overcoming Challenges: Navigating the Complexities of Low Code

Despite its many advantages, low code is not without its challenges. One of the primary concerns is the potential for “shadow IT”—the development of applications outside the control of the IT department. While low code platforms enable non-developers to create applications, this can lead to issues with security, compliance, and integration if not properly managed.

Moreover, while low code platforms are highly effective for many use cases, they may not be suitable for all types of applications. Complex, mission-critical applications that require advanced functionality or highly specific performance criteria may still need to be developed using traditional coding methods. As Kirstel points out, “Low code is a powerful tool, but it’s not a silver bullet. Organizations need to carefully evaluate when and where to use low code to ensure it meets their needs.”

Another challenge is the risk of vendor lock-in. Many low code platforms are proprietary, meaning that once an organization has invested in a particular platform, it can be difficult and costly to switch to another provider. This risk underscores the importance of thoroughly vetting low code vendors and considering factors such as scalability, flexibility, and long-term support.

The Future of Low Code: What Lies Ahead?

As low code platforms continue to evolve, they are likely to become even more integral to the software development landscape. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are expected to further enhance the capabilities of low code platforms, enabling even more sophisticated applications to be developed with minimal coding. For instance, AI-driven development tools could automate much of the coding process, allowing developers to focus on higher-level design and strategy.

“Low code is evolving rapidly, and the future looks incredibly promising,” says a representative from Mendix, a leading low code platform provider. “We’re already seeing AI and ML being integrated into low code platforms, and this is just the beginning. The next generation of low code will be even more powerful, enabling businesses to build smarter, more responsive applications.”

Furthermore, as more organizations adopt low code, we can expect to see a greater emphasis on collaboration between business users and IT professionals. Low code platforms facilitate this collaboration by providing a common language and set of tools that both groups can use to work together more effectively. This collaborative approach not only speeds up development but also ensures that applications are aligned with business needs and goals.

Embracing the Low Code Revolution

The rise of low code represents a paradigm shift in the world of software development, one that is democratizing access to technology and enabling businesses of all sizes to innovate at unprecedented speeds. As we move into an increasingly digital future, the ability to quickly develop and deploy custom applications will be a critical competitive advantage.

Low code is not just a tool for developers; it’s a strategic asset that can drive business growth, improve operational efficiency, and enhance customer experiences. As Kirstel aptly put it, “Low code is here to stay, and those who embrace it will be the ones leading the charge in the digital age.” Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a business leader looking to stay ahead of the curve, understanding the potential of low code is essential in today’s technology-driven world.

In the end, the low code revolution is about more than just technology—it’s about empowering people to create, innovate, and transform the way we live and work. As we continue to explore the possibilities of low code, one thing is clear: the future of software development is low code, and that future is already here.

Low-code and no-code app creation has been gaining traction, especially in the enterprise where organizations often need to move quickly and deploy practical solutions. AWS is taking the concept to a new level by using generative AI to make it even easier to create apps.

AWS App Studio is a generative AI-powered service that uses natural language to build enterprise-grade applications, empowering a new set of builders to create applications in minutes. With App Studio, technical professionals without deep software development skills, such as IT project managers, data engineers, and enterprise architects, can quickly develop business applications tailored to their organization’s needs.

AWS says App Studio uses natural language prompts to create apps.

Simply describe the application you want to build using natural language, App Studio will deliver an application with a multi-page user interface (UI), a data model, and custom business logic to your needs. You can then ask questions about how to modify your application, and App Studio will guide you with providing detailed answers on how to make changes using the point-and-click interface.

AWS says App Studio can help organizations save up to 80% over competing solutions, while still providing the necessary security and governance the enterprise requires.

App Studio provides granular access control policies over your data, users, and applications, also gives IT teams visibility into every application, enabling them to track usage and maintain compliance with company policies.

App Studio represents an important step in no/low-code programming and demonstrates what is possible with generative AI.

Learn more here.

Rumors began circulating in mid-July that Honeycode was on life support and unlikely to survive. The service was reportedly being referred to internally as a “KTLO,” or “keep the lights on” product, a term for keeping a service alive to support the limited number of customers still using it.

According to a post on the Honeycode community site by a team member, Amazon is officially killing the service, effective February 29, 2024.

Here’s the post in its entirety:

To our valued customers:

Thank you for participating in the Amazon Honeycode beta program; we appreciate and take seriously the feedback you provided. After careful consideration, we have made the decision to end the beta service, effective February 29, 2024.

Starting today, we are no longer accepting new customer sign-ups to the Honeycode beta. However, as an existing customer, you will be able to use Honeycode and your Honeycode apps as normal (and add team members to your existing account) until February 29, 2024, when the service will be discontinued. After this date, you will no longer be able to use Honeycode or any of the apps you created in Honeycode.

You can download data stored in Honeycode that you wish to retain before February 29, 2024, by using the “Export Data” option under your workbook settings in the Honeycode service. Please refer to this community post for instructions . If you are unable to take action to retrieve your data before February 29, 2024, please post below for help – we will retain your data until April 29, 2024. If you do not take any action, your data will be deleted on April 30, 2024.

In addition, you will not be charged for Honeycode usage after July 31, 2023.

If you have additional questions, please post below or read our FAQs.

Thank you,

Honeycode Support Team

AWS launched Honeycode in mid-2020, the company’s low-code development option for cloud computing customers. Fast-forward three years and Honeycode has failed to live up to the company’s expectations.

According to Business Insider, sources within the company say that Honeycode is now on life support, with employees referring to it as a “KTLO,” or “keep the lights on” product. “KTLO” is a term insiders use for products that are being kept alive just to support the small number of customers still using them.

The low-code development market is expected to hit $94.75 billion by 2028. Despite the growing demand for such solutions, AWS failed to gain measurable traction with Honeycode, let alone make a dent in competing platforms.

With Amazon CEO Andy Jassy looking for ways to cut costs across the company, it’s unlikely Honeycode will exist much longer.

Low-code development has been one of the fastest-growing segments of the development industry. In fact, research projects the low-code development market will be worth $94.75 billion by 2028.

According to Microsoft, low-code development is more than a gimmick or fad, providing tangible value to IT departments:

Low-code platforms help drive efficiency gains by accelerating legacy application modernization and expediting development efforts via prebuilt components. In fact, 89 percent of CIOs and IT pros surveyed say low-code is effective in increasing efficiency.

Low-code is especially helpful amid an economic downturn that has seen developers laid off, leaving companies short-staffed in their efforts to modernize legacy applications:

To close the app gap generated by developer shortages and traditional development timelines, low-code helps organizations reduce time to value by extending existing legacy core capabilities, streamlining migration projects, and replacing legacy applications with low-code solutions. These solutions are an incredible boost to application modernization endeavors, as 87 percent of CIOs and IT pros say low-code is very useful in helping their organizations modernize legacy applications.

Another benefit of low-code platforms is the role they play in breaking down silos. With a reduced barrier to entry, low-code platforms have enabled non-IT personnel to be involved in the development process, reducing the strain on IT departments.

Microsoft’s research agrees, finding that low-code platforms help improve company insights:

Low-code platforms help break down data siloes by centralizing that data and putting easy to consume data visualizations in users’ hands for cleaner, more actionable data.

Many low-code solutions are built to lift and shift legacy applications and automate manual time-consuming processes. These solutions help break down data siloes, reducing data duplication and centralizing data in a single source of truth. This centralized repository created by low-code platforms is why 86 percent of CIOs and IT pros say low-code helps their organizations generate more accurate insights from their data.

These more accurate insights enable IT pros to build more comprehensive and effective solutions for users. This means reduced re-work and greater adoption of solutions reducing costs and time to market, resulting in decreasing application backlogs for IT departments. The impact of these solutions is evident as 89 percent and 88 percent of CIOs and IT pros respectively say low-code has been effective in generating data-driven insights that they use to better service customers and internal stakeholders.

Low-code platforms are clearly here to stay and, in many ways, have benefited from the current economic situation. As IT and development teams continue to be stretched thin, low-code platforms will continue to grow.

Low-code development is gaining in popularity as a way for organizations to streamline their development process and meet their customers’ needs at a faster clip. The tech also helps other non-development departments more easily contribute to a company’s software products. As early as a year ago, low-code development was already achieving “mainstream status” within the enterprise.

According to research by Fortune Business Insights, low-code is just getting started. The latest figures show the development revolution is poised to experience a staggering CAGR of 31.6% from 2021 to 2028 when it jumps from a $13.89 market to one worth $94.75 billion.

Fortune outlines a number of factors that will help drive the growth:

Low code development platform (LCDP) offers seamless and simplified techniques for professionals and citizen development of a business application. The ongoing technological transformation across industries is expected to fuel the platform demand. The solutions considered in the scope include Appian Multi-experience Development, Low-Code Pega Platform, Microsoft Power App, ServiceNow App Engine, Zoho Creator, Oracle APEX, Outsystems Low Code Platform, and more. Also, the challenges faced by small and medium business owing to limited resources and funds are likely to surge instant application development platform adoption.

The report is good news for the low-code development market and further highlights the transformation currently underway across multiple industries.

Big data has become one of the hallmarks of modern business, with companies of all sizes relying on data to make decisions, reach new customers and retain existing ones. Unfortunately, making use of data can be a challenge on both ends of the spectrum. Small companies don’t often have the datasets they need, or processing power to make use of them, while large companies struggle to scale and respond to the data they do have.

Intelus’ SaaS Duet platform is designed to address those issues. With founders that formerly served as execs at Microsoft and Salesforce, the company has the pedigree necessary to tackle the problem.

“We are here to address all these issues, and to place the power of data back in the hands of business owners and domain experts,” said Patrice Simard, CEO & Co-founder, Intelus. “For the past decade, organizations have been at the mercy of specialists. It’s a situation that prevents smaller companies from competing and hampers innovation at large firms, where incumbent technology is placed before informed business decisions.”

“The cost and complexity of machine learning has long been a barrier too steep for most enterprises,” said Gary Flake, former CTO Search & Data Science, Salesforce. “Intelus makes a new paradigm possible with machine teaching, a framework that democratizes machine learning by empowering anyone to teach, test, and deploy state-of-the-art models with no code, no hardware, low complexity, and at low cost.” 

Interested parties can register for the beta here.

No-code is one of the fastest growing sectors within development. In fact, Gartner predicts that no-code development will account for 80% of tech products and services by 2024.

Amazon is getting in on the action with its SageMaker Canvas, a no-code tool with machine learning applications in mind.

“Today, I’m excited to announce the general availability of Amazon SageMaker Canvas, a new visual, no code capability that allows business analysts to build ML models and generate accurate predictions without writing code or requiring ML expertise,” writes Alex Casalboni, AWS Developer Advocate. “Its intuitive user interface lets you browse and access disparate data sources in the cloud or on-premises, combine datasets with the click of a button, train accurate models, and then generate new predictions once new data is available.

“SageMaker Canvas leverages the same technology as Amazon SageMaker to automatically clean and combine your data, create hundreds of models under the hood, select the best performing one, and generate new individual or batch predictions. It supports multiple problem types such as binary classification, multi-class classification, numerical regression, and time series forecasting. These problem types let you address business-critical use cases, such as fraud detection, churn reduction, and inventory optimization, without writing a single line of code.”

Low-code development allows individuals and teams to develop and deploy applications with little or no programming knowledge. Low-code platforms have become a critical part of many organizations’ workflows, allowing multiple departments to contribute to the development of applications and services.

Mendix’s study shows just how important low-code has become, with “77% of enterprises in six countries have already adopted low-code, and 75% of IT leaders said it’s a trend they can’t afford to miss.”

A major factor in the sudden uptick of low-code adoption has been the COVID-19 pandemic. As companies and organizations have transitioned to digital-first workflows, many have used low-code development to enable non-IT personnel to relieve some of the pressure on the IT staff. In fact, 59% of low-code projects involve collaboration between business and IT.

Even among IT professionals, 64% say low-code is their go-to option.

“This study confirms what we’ve long believed,” said Derek Roos, co-founder and CEO of Mendix. “Low-code is the future of software development and Mendix is leading the way. It’s agile by design. It dramatically expands the pool of development talent. It’s built for collaboration and it’s built for rapid development. Low-code, and specifically low-code with Mendix, is fast becoming a core technology enterprises need to succeed in a digital-first world.”

No-code development is the next major evolution of software development, with Gartner predicting 80% of services and products will be created using low-code or no-code development by 2024. Youreka’s solutions focus on helping Salesforce enterprises use low-code to create assistants, an area with a growing need as a result of pandemic-fueled worker shortages.

Youreka’s mission is to help close this skills gap by upskilling frontline workers. By making it easy to complete complex procedures in the field with less training and experience, Youreka improves customer service and opens access to new career opportunities.

Led by Boulder Ventures and Grotech Ventures, with Salesforce Ventures joining them, Youreka has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding. The investment comes after the company saw 300% growth in 2020.

“The new investment and collaboration with Salesforce will help us to further our innovation and expand our reach,” said Youreka CEO and former GM of IBM Cloud Platform Bill Karpovich. “While new technologies such as AI and automation are often viewed as putting people out of work and depersonalizing customer service, Youreka helps individuals do their very best work and helps organizations deliver exceptional experiences. This is an important technology with broad application. We are excited to enter the next chapter of market leadership, growth and impact.”

Low-code may be one of the fastest growing trends in development, but over a quarter of C-level execs haven’t heard of it.

Low-code and no-code solutions allow individuals to create applications and services with little to no coding or past experience. The tech is a boon to companies of all sizes, speeding up development and letting non-IT departments contribute. Low-code is gaining ground so fast that Gartner predicts that 80% of tech products and services will be built using low-code by 2024.

Unfortunately, according to research from CLEVR, 27% of C-level execs have never heard of low-code or no-code.

“It reminds me of when cloud technology was just on the rise and many businesses thought it was the same as iCloud or Dropbox,” Angelique Schouten, CEO of CLEVR, told WebProNews. “To fully access the power of low-code and no-code platforms, you must understand it first.”

CLEVR’s research illustrates the importance of closing the knowledge gap for one of the most important trends in modern development.

OpenAI is an AI research organization, founded on the principle of researching AI in a safe, responsible way. OpenAI’s GPT-3 is one of the leading natural language models, and it runs exclusively on Microsoft Azure. Microsoft also has an exclusive license to the GPT-3 code, giving it wide latitude to incorporate the model in its own products.

The partnership is bearing fruit, with Microsoft incorporating GPT-3 in its Power Apps low code development platform, adding natural, conversational language to the programming process.

The new AI-powered features will allow an employee building an e-commerce app to describe a programming goal using conversational language like “find products where the name starts with ‘kids.’” A fine-tuned GPT-3 model then offers choices for transforming the command into a Microsoft Power Fx formula, the open source programming language of the Power Platform, such as “Filter(‘BC Orders’ Left(‘Product Name’,4)=”Kids”).

For the time being, GPT-3’s features are limited to use with Microsoft Power Fx, but the future possibilities are visually endless.

“Using an advanced AI model like this can help our low-code tools become even more widely available to an even bigger audience by truly becoming what we call no code,” said Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president for Microsoft’s low code application platform.

Prosus has announced it is buying Stack Overflow for $1.8 billion, as it increases its focus on the online learning market.

Prosus is a consumer internet group that has investments in the online classifieds, education technology, food delivery and payments and fintech markets. The company is the largest shareholder of Tencent Holdings, the Chinese company behind some of the biggest games, including Fortnite, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Call of Duty: Mobile and Ring of Elysium.

Prosus appears to be making a major move in the online education market with the acquisition of Stack Overflow. Stack Overflow is one of the top 50 websites in the world, with an extremely active user base. In fact, 85% of the site’s community visits every week to access the 52+ million questions and answers, most about programming and development.

“We are delighted to be welcoming Stack Overflow to the Prosus family as we increasingly focus on the future of workplace learning,” Larry Illg, CEO of EdTech at Prosus, said. “Learning of any kind typically begins with a question and their platform is critically important for global developers when they have questions about their work. There is an opportunity to connect more deeply with their community through our other education platforms to further fulfill their learning needs.

“With enduring skills shortages and ever-evolving needs within technology organizations, technology training has emerged as the largest and fastest growing segment of corporate learning and development,” Illg continued. “As an operator of businesses across 90+ countries, we understand the needs of technologists and developers, particularly in high-growth markets. In addition to further scaling its community in the markets we know well, we want to help Stack Overflow Teams to expand within enterprises to address an underserved opportunity to transform their technology learning and collaboration.”

“We are excited to be joining the Prosus family, which catapults us into a new phase of growth and allows us to expand and accelerate Stack Overflow’s impact around the world,” Stack Overflow’s CEO, Prashanth Chandrasekar, said. “Prosus’s expertise growing and nurturing communities, especially in a global context, will make our public platform even more invaluable in helping developers and technologists learn and grow. Given Prosus’s focus on the future of the workplace, their partnership will allow our market leading SaaS collaboration product, Stack Overflow for Teams, to reach thousands more global enterprises, allowing them to accelerate product innovation and increase productivity by unlocking institutional knowledge.”

The deal is expected to close in Q3 2021.

Microsoft is integrating GPT-3 — a natural language model developed by OpenAI — with its low-code development tools.

Microsoft Power Apps is the company’s low-code development platform, designed to allow individuals to create software with minimal coding experiencing. GTP-3 is a natural language model developed by OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company that was co-founded by Elon Musk.

By combining GTP-3 and Power Apps, Microsoft hopes to revolutionize low-code development, alowing individuals to program using natural expression commands.

Microsoft’s Jennifer Langston outlined the benefits in a company blog post:

For instance, the new AI-powered features will allow an employee building an e-commerce app to describe a programming goal using conversational language like “find products where the name starts with ‘kids.’” A fine-tuned GPT-3 model then offers choices for transforming the command into a Microsoft Power Fx formula, the open source programming language of the Power Platform, such as “Filter(‘BC Orders’ Left(‘Product Name’,4)=”Kids”).

Integrating GPT-3 into Power Apps will help the company’s development tools go from low-code to no-code.

“Using an advanced AI model like this can help our low-code tools become even more widely available to an even bigger audience by truly becoming what we call no code,” said Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president for Microsoft’s low code application platform.

“This will allow people to query and explore data in ways they literally couldn’t do before, and that will be the magical moment,” Lamanna added.

Google has made its low-code automation tool, AppSheet Automation, generally available.

Google bought AppSheet, one of the leading no-code development platforms, at the beginning of 2020. The company has been building on that acquisition by developing AI-based automation to help organizations automate their business processes.

Automation is more important than ever as companies and industries try to return to normal. According to Forrester, “automation has been a major force reshaping work since long before the pandemic; now, it’s taking on a new urgency in the context of business risk and resiliency… As we emerge from the crisis, firms will look to automation as a way to mitigate the risks that future crises pose to the supply and productivity of human workers.”

Google is clearly working to position AppSheet Automation as the platform of choice for companies looking to improve their automation.

Last fall, we announced early access for AppSheet Automation, a significant addition to AppSheet, our no-code development platform, that leverages Google AI to make it easier to automate business processes. Today, as part of our mission to further support the future of work, we are making AppSheet Automation generally available (GA). AppSheet Automation empowers even those without coding skills to reshape their own work with powerful new features including smarter extraction of structured data from documents and compatibility with a wider range of data sources like Google Workspace Sheets and Drive.

Google says companies around the world are already using AppSheet. AppSheet Automation should open up important new possibilities.

IBM and Palantir are partnering to make it easier to develop and deploy low-code AI applications to IBM’s hybrid cloud.

IBM is all-in on hybrid cloud, with plans to split the company and spin off its legacy business into an independent company, while the core company focuses on the cloud. As it moves toward that goal, IBM has been shoring up its cloud business, buying up startups and inking deals with complimentary companies.

The latest deal involves partnering with Palantir, with the two companies announcing a new product, Palantir for IBM Cloud Pak for Data. The new application is designed to address the disparity between those companies that want to deploy AI and companies that have the necessary experience. According to IBM, 75% of business are exploring AI implementation. Unfortunately, 37% have limited AI experience, while 31% cite data silos and data complexity as major challenges.

Palantir for IBM Cloud Pak for Data is designed to address these challenges by bringing a no-code/low-code approach to AI application development.

The new product will leverage Palantir Foundry and will integrate with IBM Cloud Pak for Data services, such as Watson, providing an information architecture that includes data and AI with built-in governance. It is designed to provide an easy to use “no-code/low-code” environment for building applications that use AI to inform data-driven decision making and automate tasks and processes. Built on Red Hat OpenShift, Palantir for IBM Cloud Pak for Data is intended to help businesses reduce data silos, integrate data sources across hybrid cloud environments, and govern data throughout the AI lifecycle. The product is being designed to help users securely build and deploy AI applications with that data quickly, to rapidly complement and extend existing enterprise systems and accelerate their digital transformation.

The new application will be available in March 2021 and may very well help speed the adoption of AI.

GamerMaker Studio combines drag-and-drop elements with a scripting language to to help novice programmers create games with minimal programming. While the acquisition may seem out of place for a company long-known for its web browser, the acquisition aligns with Opera’s recent moves.

The company announced its new Opera GX web browser in June 2019. Unlike its legacy browser, Opera GX was aimed at gamers from the beginning. Still in early access, the browser provides ways to limit its network use to save bandwidth for whatever games are running, as well as quick ways to kill RAM-hogging tabs. The browser also includes built-in Discord support. Discord is a popular communication platform gamers use when playing multi-player and PvP games.

“We are very excited to start working with the team at YoYo Games,” said Krystian Kolondra, EVP Browsers at Opera. “We see the platform as being an ideal acquisition to complement our global ambitions in gaming, along with our Opera GX gaming browser. We look forward to further growing Opera GX and to driving the growth of GameMaker, making it more accessible to novice users and developing it into the world’s leading 2D game engine used by commercial studios. We are also thrilled to find future synergies between YoYo Games’ products and Opera GX.”

“It’s been clear to us from the first time we spoke to them that the whole of the team at Opera is incredibly passionate about games,” said Stuart Poole, General Manager of YoYo Games. “Since joining them last week, the positivity and creative energy we are seeing from them has been overwhelming. We have always had big plans for improving GameMaker across all platforms, both from the perspective of improving accessibility and further developing the features available to commercial studios; and now we can’t wait to see them arrive much sooner.”

Opera’s acquisition illustrates the ongoing digital convergence among industries that, at first glance, appear to have little in common.

The SolarWinds attack is one of the most devastating cyberattacks perpetrated against US companies and government agencies. Believed to be the work of Russian hackers, the attack was a supply chain attack, compromising SolarWind’s Orion IT monitoring and management software.

As one of the organizations impacted, Microsoft has now revealed the hackers viewed some of its source code, but did not make any modifications.

We detected unusual activity with a small number of internal accounts and upon review, we discovered one account had been used to view source code in a number of source code repositories. The account did not have permissions to modify any code or engineering systems and our investigation further confirmed no changes were made. These accounts were investigated and remediated.

Microsoft is not concerned about the source code being viewed, since the company’s security protocols assume its source is being viewed by outside elements.

At Microsoft, we have an inner source approach – the use of open source software development best practices and an open source-like culture – to making source code viewable within Microsoft. This means we do not rely on the secrecy of source code for the security of products, and our threat models assume that attackers have knowledge of source code. So viewing source code isn’t tied to elevation of risk.

As with many companies, we plan our security with an “assume breach” philosophy and layer in defense-in-depth protections and controls to stop attackers sooner when they do gain access.

Although Microsoft seems to be containing any damage adequately, the degree to which the attackers compromised one of the biggest tech companies in the world is further evidence just how successful the SolarWinds attack was.

SonarQube is a code inspection platform that currently supports 27 programming languages and helps developers write cleaner, more secure, bug-free code. SonarQube integrates with a number of third-party services and platforms, including GitHub, GitLab, LDAP, Active Directory, BitBucket, Azure DevOps and more.

Unfortunately, according to the FBI (PDF), it appears a number of organizations using SonarQube left the default parameters in place, opening themselves up to security issues and code theft.

In August 2020, unknownthreat actors leaked internal data from two organizations through a public lifecycle repositorytool. The stolen data was sourced from SonarQube instances that used default port settings and admin credentials running on the affected organizations’ networks. This activity is similar toa previous data leak in July 2020, in which an identified cyber actor exfiltrated proprietary source code from enterprises throughpoorly secured SonarQube instances and published the exfiltrated source codeon a self-hosted public repository.

During the initial attack phase, cyber actorsscan theinternetfor SonarQube instances exposed to the open Internet using the default port (9000) and a publicly accessible IP address. Cyber actors then use default administrator credentials (username: admin, password: admin) to attempt to access SonarQube instances.

The FBI recommends following basic security protocols that, quite frankly, organizations should have implemented from the beginning. This includes, changing the default admin username and password, the default port through which SonarQube is accessed, putting SonarQube behind a login screen, checking for unauthorized users and keeping the platform behind the company firewall.