Shadow IT arises as soon as an employee or an entire specialist department procures, develops or operates software autonomously. The unofficial secondary systems exist in parallel to the actual IT architecture – without the knowledge and control of the IT department.
According to studies, the majority of employees use software and applications that the company’s IT department is unaware of. The problem is that these isolated solutions often do not meet the company’s organizational requirements in terms of control, documentation, reliability and, above all, IT security. As early as 2018, analysts from Gartner warned that the risk of cyber attacks is significantly higher due to the use of unauthorized IT solutions.
However, employees’ own initiative also has its advantages: For example, their innovative solutions can serve as prototypes for future applications. But how can the commitment of the specialist departments be integrated into the overarching IT strategy?
This is precisely where low-code platforms come in. They offer standardized development environments with which applications can be created without in-depth programming and IT knowledge. Developed on a standardized technological basis, the applications are part of the company’s official IT infrastructure right from the start. By using a low-code platform for application development, uncontrolled shadow IT becomes professional citizen development that is under the central governance of the IT department. As a result, the user-developed applications function reliably and also meet all security requirements.
The app itself has grown considerably in recent times due to constant expansion. More and more tickets and ticket columns have been added, which means that the database behind it has grown accordingly.
For this reason, Alexander and his colleagues are thinking about rebuilding the app. “That would significantly improve performance,” says the pro coder. The large number of tickets can be processed. However, they are always loaded in full. “That’s why we need a sensible database structure with which you only receive data when you actively want to receive it. The current long loading times of between five and six seconds are unacceptable, especially on a tablet,” says Alexander.
Of course, this makes successful digitization more difficult. This is where the new database designer comes in. This makes it possible to create your own database quickly and easily. Using a graphical interface, you can design your own database diagrams that allow deployment for different database types.
Read the full article by Christian Kleinschroth, CTO and Co-Founder at Simplifier, in the December issue of IT Security (source: www.it-daily.net).
