Are cloud-based IDEs the future of software engineering?

Enhanced quality, speed and security advancements are the new trends in the software industry.

An integrated development environment (IDE) is a programming environment that has been packaged as an application and often includes a code editor, a compiler, a debugger, and a GUI builder. IDEs allow you to write, run, and debug code. Cloud IDEs are cloud-based integrated development environments. While IDEs are often installed on a developer's local system, cloud-based IDEs allow you to develop software using only a browser.

Desktop-based and cloud-based IDEs

Desktop IDEs continue to play an important role in our development workflow. While desktop-based IDEs are still the norm and will remain so for the foreseeable future, cloud-based IDEs are quickly gaining traction. The tools are also constantly evolving, and they are likely to be used in conjunction with desktop-based IDEs in the future. Setting up local environments is a pain, especially if you want to quickly prototype a creative idea, try out a new open source library, reproduce a bug, or collaborate with a coworker. As web development progresses toward full-stack SSR and SSG toolchains, this problem is becoming more widespread than ever. For open source maintainers and Fortune 100 firms alike, running user-submitted code for bug reproduction is becoming a huge security issue, and supply chain threats are on the rise.

Cloud-based IDEs address these issues by employing browser-based speed and security advancements. All computing takes place in the browser's security sandbox, which means it can't reach your own PC. This paradigm also provides some important development and debugging advantages. Cloud-based IDEs have been available for a while and are becoming more popular. Gitpod, Repl, Glich, and others are examples of cloud-based IDEs. 

Cloud-based IDE: trends 

These new IDE tools provide a comprehensive environment for enhancing developer productivity, with capabilities such as GitHub integration, support for writing and compilation of several languages, and more. There's no need to browse through an installation page to figure out which package has to be installed because the development environment runs entirely in the browser. The barriers to getting started with web development are removed with cloud-based IDEs. 

Anything that supports a modern web browser is certainly fair game, and you won't have to reinstall anything from scratch on each system. These solutions enable improved cooperation by providing highly customizable workspaces that may be modified at the team/individual level.

Given the primary benefits, it's easy to see why cloud-based IDEs are gaining popularity.

Cloud-based IDE: the future

Software engineering is a field that is quickly evolving. As a result, software engineers must stay current with the latest trends in order to be relevant in the field. Computing and developing on the cloud is now a big element of software engineering. They'll have to embrace cloud computing.

To stay relevant in the field, software developers will need to use the cloud. Developers would have limitless access to testing and staging servers with the cloud system. They will also have more time to market as a result of this. This means they'll be able to deploy new, higher-quality software more frequently. As a result, they will have an easier time keeping up with consumer demands and being competitive in the software industry.

Desktop IDEs will still be used but the cloud-based IDEs are going to see some very interesting use cases crop up in the coming years. Much may be said about software development tools that run on the cloud, given the widespread adoption and popularity of cloud and container technologies. This trend is not limited to IDEs. In terms of improving the developer experience, cloud IDEs have a unique role to play.

The benefits of running the IDE in the cloud include not having to maintain and set up projects locally, better sharing and collaboration (via shared development environments), direct integration/access to cloud services, improved context switches (when working with different projects, branches, etc. ), and centralized control and confidentiality of source code.

Cloud IDEs have drawbacks and are still in their early phases of development. So there's a case to be made for continuous delivery and creating routines that help developers achieve their goals.

The article is authored by Sagar Patidar, CEO, Primathon