Digital operations rely on software. But only a small percentage of companies can afford large in-house developer teams to create custom applications that seamlessly fulfill its business and customer needs.

This means almost everyone else is operating with inadequate software that frustrates customers and employees, impacting productivity and the bottomline.

“If you look at the investment we make in software … that investment has such a high-risk and a high cost,” said Patrick Jean (pictured), chief technology officer at OutSystems Inc. “That needs to change, and it needs to change just because of the complexity that is in that process inherent in it.”

Jean spoke with Lisa Martin, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent. They discussed the upcoming release of OutSystems’ software development platform, code-named Project Neo, and how the company is reducing the risk of investing in software. (* Disclosure below.)

Project Neo automates DevOps

The problem comes down to the skills shortage. There are around 30 billion connected devices in use today, but only about 25 million developers to create and maintain the applications that power them.

“Think of that disparity between those two numbers,” Jean said.

Magically materializing trained developers isn’t possible, so OutSystems has lowered the bar to entry so that a more diverse group of people can create code.

“What we do is we take the approach of let’s make it very simple to get into,” Jean explained.

The company’s unnamed platform, currently known as Project Neo, automates the DevOps processes that fill a developer’s productive hours, as well as managing cloud costs, monitoring security and ensuring maximum uptime.

“[Project Neo] would be comparable to a traditional development team that has application architects, cloud architects, security engineers, database engineers, a whole team of very smart individuals,” Jean said. “Most companies can’t do that. You don’t have access to that type of skill set. And so we’re providing that.”

Project Neo is currently in public preview and will be available for general release in the first quarter of 2022.

“We believe what is most important to businesses [is to] get that unique software that fits like a glove. That is great for employees, it’s great for their customers, and it is a unique differentiator for them,” Jean concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure: OutSystems Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither OutSystems nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE