OutSystems: Leapfrog the backlog slog with cloud accelerators for AWS
Cloud is complicated.
Yes, cloud computing is generally agreed to be a route to providing compute, storage, analytics and an increasing amount of AI-engine power supplied as-a-Service, plus it opens an accessibility channel to the future prospect of quantum power, so in many senses, cloud takes complexity away.
But in general, cloud can be complex, convoluted and confusingly conglomerated… so real world customer organisations have been known to struggle with the rapid easy deployments that the promised land was supposed to offer.
In a concerted effort to combat the cloudy challenges ahead, modern application development company OutSystems has launched new components and resources designed to give software application development engineers a more controllable and straightforward means of creating next-gen apps & services.
The OutSystems Cloud Accelerators for Amazon Web Services (AWS) is detailed this week ahead of the (virtual) OutSystems and AWS Cloud Innovation Summit — and in terms of form and function OutSystems is initially delivering seven accelerators in the following four areas:
- Customer experience transformation
- Workplace innovation
- Process optimisation
- Technology modernisation
The accelerators are composed of components, samples and training to help developers build and evolve scalable applications that use key AWS services.
Leapfrog the backlog slog
The promise to developers from OutSystems is as follows: say goodbye to application backlog, say hello to developing apps at lightning speed with the latest tech such as reactive web, AI/ML, IoT, RPA and microservices.
“OutSystems Cloud Accelerators are built upon our existing relationship with AWS to help every organisation innovate through software,” said Patrick Jean, OutSystems CTO. “The past year has put tremendous stress on businesses and compounded decades-old software challenges, hastening the need for innovation. We’re launching these capabilities to provide developers across all company sizes and industries with an accelerated path to building modern cloud applications fast, right and for future change.”
OutSystems’s Jean: Buckle up, we’re accelerating application engines.
These accelerators work in areas including digital identity verification – a technology which provides an onboarding experience with identity verification workflows, including face matching for opted-in users, which compares a photo or selfie with an identifying document such as a driver’s license, built on Amazon Rekognition and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).
Other core function
Other core functions here include video call validation to deliver video engagement for a variety of use cases, including identity verification during customer onboarding, or field services support using Amazon Kinesis or Chime.
Also here is a self-service chatbot to reduce pressure on call centres by providing AI-powered chatbots and the ability to escalate to a human support agent as required, powered by Amazon Lex and Amazon Comprehend.
“A customer and employee engagement Virtual Personal Assistant (VPA) offers new ways to engage with customers and employees using voice and VPAs such as Amazon Alexa. A multilingual chatbot [is able to help developers] provide chatbots that are able to communicate in any language, using Amazon Translation Services, Amazon Polly, and Amazon Transcribe,” noted OutSystems, in a press statement.
Also here we find a personalised streaming experience to provide uperior workplace innovation experiences such as employee onboarding and training, built on Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon S3.
OutSystems appears to have thought about what software developers need today AND also considered what kinds of functions they will need to implement the functionality required in the applications of tomorrow… and this (of course) will be crucial for the future-proofing of cloud-centric systems currently in development.
The cloud-road ahead may still be complicated, but if we can accelerate out of some of the sharper bends with additional smart controls, then we may get to our destination in good shape.
