# Low-Code as Enabler of Digital Transformation in Manufacturing Industry
## 3 Low-Code Development Platforms
### Analysis of the Current Low-Code Development Platforms
There are some features that are well covered by many of the software platforms analysed. BlueMix and Software AG's ADAMOS up-front provide application programming interfaces (APIs) to access third party software. Within the rest of platforms, the APIs are offered through a configuration facility. In addition, MindSphere, BlueMix and ADAMOS have a good coverage in terms of development environment. However, this is not included, by default, in the MS Azure IOT Suite. In the case of PTC, they have different tools for different purposes and for GE Predix the development environment is under development. With regard to the main differences between the analysed platforms and vf-OS, it is worth mentioning that only two platforms: PTC ThingWorx and BlueMix have the business process modelling feature. Moreover, the developers' hub is only offered by the MS Azure IOT Suite and vf-OS. Finally, from an open source viewpoint, only Siemens MindSphere and MS Azure IOT Suite are considered (themselves) as open source platforms while Microsoft specifies that the IOT Suite is open source but not the complete version of the Azure Platform. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Feature**} & **Siemens** & **PTC** & **GE** & **IBM Cloud** & **MS Azure IOT** & **Software AG** & \multirow{2}{*}{vf-OS} \\  & **MindsSphere** & **ThingWorx** & **Predix** & **(BlueMix)** & **Suite** & **ADAMOS** & \\ \hline Operating System & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & - & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline Security by design & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline Connecting IIoT & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline APIs to access third party software & \(\epsilon^{\sharp}\) & \(\epsilon^{\sharp}\) & \(\epsilon\) & \(\bullet\) & - & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline OnPremise & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline InCloud & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & - & \(\epsilon\) & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline Marketplace & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & - & \(\epsilon\) & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline Development Environment & \(\bullet\) & \(\epsilon^{\sharp}\) & \(\epsilon^{\sharp}\) & \(\bullet\) & - & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline Business Process Modelling & - & \(\bullet\) & - & \(\bullet\) & - & - & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline Analytics & - & \(\bullet\) & - & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline Data Inspection and ETL & \(\blacktriangle\) & \(\blacktriangle\) & \(\blacktriangle\) & \(\blacktriangle\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) \\ \hline Developers Hub & - & - & - & - & \(\bullet\) & - & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline Open Source & \(\bullet\) & - & - & - & \(\bullet\) & - & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline Innovation & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) \\ \hline Messaging and Pub/Sub & \(\blacktriangle\) & \(\blacktriangle\) & \(\blacktriangle\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) & \(\blacklozenge\) \\ \hline Product Management, & & & & & \(\bullet\) & \(\bullet\) & - & - & \(\epsilon\) \\ \hline Converging, Simulation & & & & & & & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* via configuration,
* through Digital Marketplace,
* different tools for different purposes,
* under development,
* via vf-OS Assets.  
\end{table} 
Table 5: Benchmarking of the existing and low-code development platforms against vf-OS.