A shared drive on your local company network unlocks this opportunity...

Intro

TL;DR — You can deploy custom web apps on your company's local network without paying for a cloud subscription.

A long time ago, I had to create a custom task management web application (like Jira or Trello) with some very specific local data handling requirements. The issue arose when I needed to deploy this web app. Getting a budget for deploying this application proved to be nearly impossible (it was a B2B consultancy company with rigid procedures). So, I needed to come up with a free solution to host this app safely.

This app was built in Python, so I used PyInstaller to bundle the app as a single executable that can run on any Windows OS. Once that was done, I configured the SQLite3 database on a shared drive which everyone could access. The next step was to let the users copy the executable from the shared drive. Once that was done, everyone could start the executable and use the app as if it was deployed in the cloud.

If the company had control over the network, the solution could have been deployed on the company's server, but the network in this case was the main client Citrix environment.

There are a lot of open-source tools that can be deployed for free in a local company network. Of course, deploying on the cloud has its benefits, but also its costs.

One annoying thing is that the generated executable, when copied to another machine than the one used to build the exe, will trigger warnings from Windows/antiviruses when trying to run it. Don't worry, it's safe. Each desktop application needs a certificate from an authorized company, which costs money, of course. You can avoid this by either ignoring the messages and adding the executable to the exclusion list in the antivirus or by installing Python and just running the source code via a bash file.

There are a ton of very niche apps that can be built and used in a company using this method. Ideally, the company would have Python and VSCode installed on every machine, thus allowing employees to automate their tasks.

If you have business processes that you think (or are unsure if) they can be automated with a custom software solution, feel free to reach out to me.