As the demand for digital transformation becomes accelerated as a result of COVID-19, there is a huge amount of interest from enterprises to build applications, integrate them, modernize systems and automate all of them very quickly and easily in a cost-effective manner. And more and more companies are wanting solutions where it doesn’t take deep knowledge of code to complete applications and automate services.

“That has been driving a lot of the thinking at Google for quite a few of years already,” said Amit Zavery (pictured), vice president, general manager and head of platform at Google Cloud. “We’re bringing a lot of … things together in an offering so that customers can take advantage of a lot of the innovation in this space and improve the digital transformation — and innovate quickly as well. So that’s what we’ve done with Business Application Platform.”

Zavery spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the Google Cloud Next OnAir event. They discussed topics like no-code app development and automation capabilities in the Google Cloud Business Application Platform.

Using no-code solutions to help companies build applications and automate

With Business Applications Platform, Google Cloud has accelerated its work around no-code application development and automation capabilities, according to Zavery.

“We’re providing capabilities for any kind of developer, be it the technical user who has a lot of programming experience, as well as … the system developers who don’t really have any kind of a software-engineering background,” Zavery said. “So we want to provide them all the tooling and capabilities so that they can do that and be more effective than they would otherwise be.”

To help this endeavor, Google Cloud has acquired companies like AppSheet, an intelligent no-code platform that helps users create multiplatform apps in real time for the workplace. Someone who has no background in code can create application and automation, which is even more important now than ever because of information technology department limits, according to Zavery.

“There are a lot of … applications which departments and line of business users want to use and build, and they can’t wait around for IT,” Zavery stated. “They can point, click and start building an application and be effectively [producing] something which they can collaborate and use between different users inside the company or outside without spending a lot of months and time to deliver that. And that’s why the no-code application platforms are becoming very popular, because it does make your business more efficient.”

In order to achieve this no-code advantage, Google Cloud’s Business Applications Platform provides a lot of templates and system examples in the no-code tooling while the complexity is completely hidden from the user perspective, according to Zavery. Users can build an application using the power of Google Cloud’s underlying platform with scalability, reliability, security and integration.

“That really is where the power comes in, and it’s flexible enough that you can kind of pretty much do any kind of application deployment,” Zavery added. “I will not build a full-blown eCommerce site with it, but I can do a lot of typical day-to-day … applications, like vacation approval or things you might want to do for mortgage lending.”

So far, Google Cloud’s Business Applications Platform has more than 400,000 users using AppSheet who are building applications, according to Zavery. Thousands of applications have been built on it, and millions of people are using those applications.

“The innovation is happening very fast,” Zavery concluded. “And that’s the reason why we’re … increasing our investment in the Business Application Platform and just kind of [pouring into] a lot of things we’re doing.”

Here’s the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Google Cloud Next OnAir event:

Photo: SiliconANGLE