For example, the startup Backendless has developed a graphical solution that engineers use to set up server-side APIs and IoT services without programming language. cedalo AG , based in the southern Black Forest, is aiming in the same direction. This startup already presented its stream spreadsheets at the 2017 Hanover trade fair and recently won an award in the 100 Locations for Industry 4.0 in Baden-Wuerttemberg competition. The cedalo solution processes data streams, for example via OPC UA, directly from the machine protocols (IO-Link, Profinet, etc.). Both approaches are designed to use computing power from the cloud as a backend.

The low-code/no-code trend is, however, eliciting mixed feelings, at least from system integrators and IT departments. If artificial intelligence can tell what actions are required at the shop floor level, why doesn’t it simply program application and workflow itself? Jason Bloomberg thus conjectures that low-code/no-code could mean the the disruption of digitization itself .