In the past decade, the mobile app industry has seen an explosion in growth and revenue. Mobile app development has become especially popular and profitable as companies continue to enter and take advantage within the app market, making it a center of innovation and massive potential.

With so much going for it, it is natural that mobile apps have evolved considerably since their conception. Today, there seems to be a mobile app for everything we can imagine. A steady growth in mobile app technology has made apps extraordinarily reliable and functional, to the point where they have become an everyday necessity.

From finding hidden virtual treasures in vast open-world mobile games to having real items delivered to your doorstep by e-commerce companies, mobile apps have become integral to our lifestyle and how we interact with the world and each other. Most businesses recognize this, and thus the mobile market brews with competition as companies relentlessly try to innovate, hoping to secure an edge over the rest.

A current (and rising) trend within the tech world today is the use of cloud computing. In this particular context, cloud computing allows one to install and run software over the cloud (the internet). According to a Gartner report, cloud applications are expected to generate around $126.7 billion in 2021. So the market is geared towards cloud-based applications, and we can certainly expect to see a lot more of them in the near future.

But what are cloud apps?

The traditional approach to mobile app development has been very native and device-oriented. Developers build apps that can be downloaded from the app stores by the users. Native apps provide great functionality, responsiveness, and synergy with the device’s OS but, at the same time, are drastically limited by the performance and capacity of the device.

Cloud apps attempt to address this by letting the cloud do the heavy lifting. The software runs on external servers, and the app allows access to the processed data. Despite how novel and recent cloud computing (and apps) might look like, they’ve been around for a long time.

Perhaps the best and most unrecognized example of a cloud app is Gmail (and other similar email clients). Mail clients store and access information on the cloud, which users can access on their preferred devices. Cloud apps offer great functionality and flexibility to mobile developers since it allows them to develop solutions without traditional constraints. For example, mobile app development companies in the US can utilize cloud infrastructure to deliver custom software solutions across the globe without worrying about regional, demographic or technological differences.

Cloud Apps are web apps, but better.

It can be easy to think of cloud apps to be the same as web apps. After all, both aren’t native to the device and are accessible via web browsers. However, not all cloud apps are made equal. A good way to put it can be: All web apps are cloud apps, but not all cloud apps are web apps.

A web application comprises a combination of server-side script and client-side script, which together, do exactly what this sounds like; they connect the user to the service and data over the server. Web apps act as an interface between the two and can only be accessed via web browsers.

While cloud apps can technically act as web apps, they are capable of a lot more. For starters, unlike web apps, cloud apps aren’t confined to browsers. Cloud applications also present a unique opportunity where local and cloud-based components can interact with each other to provide better functionality.

Cloud apps mainly differ from web apps in the sense that they are available on a wider range of devices and platforms beyond just web browsers. This makes them much more flexible and capable than traditional web apps. Cloud apps also offer advanced features like multi-tenancy that web apps don’t, making them much more customizable and user-oriented.

The flexibility and power of cloud computing make it ideal for under-developed yet rapidly growing markets like India. India is a huge market dominated by low-end devices that’s hungry for innovation, the perfect place for cloud computing to flourish. Mobile app development companies in India have a great opportunity ahead of them to secure themselves as leaders within the realms of cloud-based mobile app development.

Notable advantages of Cloud Apps

With cloud computing being the new buzzword in the tech world, it might be worth asking if opting for a cloud app is the right choice for business over the traditional approach to mobile app development. The answer is a certain yes if your business (and app) can benefit from the unique features that cloud apps offer. Some of these major advantages that cloud apps enjoy are listed below:

• The biggest advantage, and perhaps the main reason why cloud apps are taking off, is that the development process for cloud apps is much simpler compared to native apps. Ideally, a company needs to develop separate apps for Android and iOS, which makes the development process cost twice as much in terms of money and time. With Cloud apps, the development is straightforward, and the resulting app is truly cross-platform. The good news is that by taking the appropriate measures, businesses can protect their cloud ecosystems withOxeye.io
• Another key advantage to cloud apps is that they don’t rely on the device’s hardware to do the heavy lifting. Since most of the computing infrastructure is cloud-based, the computing potential of cloud apps is virtually limitless. A significant boost in speed, performance, and user-experience is made possible by implementing cloud computing.
• Cloud apps offer a pure cross-platform experience, which lets the users shift between multiple devices and platforms without having to switch apps. The continuity creates a seamless experience and helps with audience retention since it provides a complete, multi-platform solution.
• Cloud-connected apps also offer a great advantage when it comes to data storage. With cloud apps storing, sharing, and accessing data is much easier compared to native apps. The cloud also offers significantly higher safety and reliability when it comes to data storage, marking itself as a reliable solution for businesses looking to utilize cloud computing.
• Another key advantage to cloud apps is scalability. Every app needs to be scalable. Since cloud apps have access to on-demand storage, they can be easily scaled up or down depending on incoming traffic.

Conclusion

There are many advantages of cloud apps over native apps in terms of ease of development, user-experience quality, computing power, data security, and scalability. But they also come with a few disadvantages like the heavy reliance on a stable internet connection.

So the choice between a cloud-based vs. native approach ultimately comes down to being able to make the most out of what cloud computing has to offer without bearing heavy losses for what it demands.

In most cases, cloud-based apps offer reliable, flexible, innovative, and future-proof solutions gaining a significant leg-up over traditional mobile apps. For these reasons, businesses should prefer building cloud apps over native ones. For those seeking help with the same, Goodfirms has cataloged a list of top mobile app development companies that you can hire to build your own cloud app. How do you plan to leverage cloud app development to take your business to the next level?