Top Emerging Web Development Trends To Watch In 2017

FastSpring
FastSpring
May 3rd, 2017
Estimated read time: 3 minutes, 15 seconds

According to the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index Forecast, 2017 will see more global internet traffic than all previous years combined. Annual global IP traffic will reach 1.4 zettabytes (one zettabyte equals sextillion bytes or one billion terabytes), which means more potential customers—and more competition—for Software as a Service (SaaS) companies around the world.

Staying informed is the best way for your SaaS company to survive in a bustling digital environment. However, it can be tricky to find time to research in your workday. To help you stay current, we’ve compiled a list of the top emerging web development trends for software businesses to keep in mind in 2017.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI technology is rapidly developing and is already being used to carry out many of what we tend to think of as ‘human’ tasks. In website design, for example, AI can analyze a user’s content and objectives and, with the click of a button, generate a customized website. Additionally, the AI learns more about the user’s preferences as they make their own adjustments, which makes the development process far more economical.

While AI technology may appear to pose a threat to the web developer profession, it’s actually more likely to shift the focus of their role towards the more creative aspects of the business that benefits from a human touch.

Typescript and JavaScript

Typescript, an open-source programming language, is a strict superset of JavaScript that emerged in 2016. It adds modules, classes, and types to JavaScript, in order to help developers structure their code and explain their Application Programming Interface (API). Because it’s open source, other developers are free to view and improve on the code and its language features and functionality.

According to StackOverflow, JavaScript is currently used by 85.3% of full-stack, front-, and back-end developers, and its popularity is unlikely to fade anytime soon. However, as applications move towards component-driven architecture, it will become harder to learn. The release of Angular 2 in 2016, for example, uses features of JavaScript ES6 and includes typescript application, which led to Google redesigning their JavaScript framework. Expect regular changes in 2017, which means in-house development teams will need the flexibility to account for increased training and upskilling.

The Internet Is Expanding

Users are increasingly ditching their desktops in favor of smartphones for internet access. StatCounter’s GlobalStats showed that in October 2016, mobile and tablet searches surpassed desktop searches worldwide for the first time. This means that to stay relevant, developers need to make sure that their apps and websites are mobile compatible.

The proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) also means that businesses will have increased access to vast quantities of consumer data. While this can be used to improve product and service functionality, it inevitably raises privacy concerns as well. We’re also likely to see more machine-to-machine communication, which means more traffic and potential strain on network resources. More connected devices also mean increased entry points for hackers and cybercriminals, which will necessitate a greater focus on cybersecurity.

Static Website Generators

A static website generator is a software service that uses a static site to generate an HTML website from plain text. This speeds up content production, as there are no queries to run on a database.

While static website generators can handle traffic surges without strain, they are unable to process live feeds or real-time data. This means website owners will be unable to gather information on popular trends or obtain feedback from consumers. Nevertheless, as APIs and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) become more commonplace, their popularity is expected to grow.

SaaS businesses need to keep up with the latest development trends if they want to thrive in 2017 and beyond. FastSpring is a world-class e-commerce service provider that can help you keep your business relevant in the modern software marketplace—allowing you to stay ahead of the technology curve and up to date with the latest web development trends.

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