Sunday, July 1, 2018

Avoiding Monkey Traps


It doesn't matter if your application is no-code, low-code or nearly all code.


If you can't move your app. You're in a Monkey Trap.



A guy called George A. Ricker once wrote a blog called How to spot a monkey trap and avoid it.

He explains a technique hunters use to catch monkeys and how humans can easily fall for the same type of trap.



In cases such as accounting systems like Xero and document management systems like Dropbox, a Platform as a Service (PaaS) can be a great business model.

A PaaS allows a company to outsource the management of some of their daily tasks without needing to supply the hardware infrastructure to support it.

And if for some reason you find a better PaaS solution in the future you can move that accounting data or those documents to a similar Service.




But if you use a PaaS to build business applications, you could be putting your hand directly into a monkey trap.

Building any worthwhile application can cost a lot of time and money, and in some cases, the application once built, can become so vital to your business that you eventually can't do without it.

Now, if this service provider goes out of business or increases the price of their service to a point you can no longer afford.

You will be left with nothing but the data you can export - no forms, reports or customised business logic.




If you use nuBuilder Forte, this is not the case.

We provide a simple PaaS, that allows you to get up and running straight away.

This service sends you a backup of all you need should you decide to install your application on a new server.

All you have to do is...


  • Install nuBuilder Forte  - which is open source, free and available on Github.
  • Import the backup file that has been emailed to you, into the database.


And you are up and running.

Everything you have created is there and you have total ownership and control over it.