The way we build software has changed, the way we deploy must change too
AI has transformed how we build software. Ideas come to life faster than ever. But shipping remains stuck in the past. It's time for that to change.
Something remarkable has happened over the past year. The way we build software has fundamentally changed. AI coding assistants have moved from novelty to necessity, and developers everywhere are experiencing a shift that feels less like an upgrade and more like a transformation.
Ideas that once took weeks to prototype now come to life in hours. Complex features that required deep expertise in multiple domains can now be built by smaller teams, or even individuals. The barrier between "I have an idea" and "I have working code" has never been lower.
A new generation of builders
This isn't just making existing developers faster. It's enabling an entirely new generation of builders. People who understand problems deeply—domain experts, designers, entrepreneurs—can now bring their ideas to life without waiting for engineering resources or learning years of programming fundamentals first.
The student with a research idea can build the tool to test it. The founder can prototype their vision before hiring their first engineer. The designer can ship interactive experiences, not just mockups.
Yes, there will be disruption. Change at this pace can feel uncomfortable. But like every major technological shift before it—from the printing press to the internet—the end result will be that we, as humans, are enabled to solve previously unsolvable problems. More minds building. More ideas tested. More solutions found. That's good for the economy, and good for humanity.
But there's a problem
Building is no longer the bottleneck. Shipping is.
The way we deploy software is stuck in the past. It hasn't kept pace with how we build. And it's creating friction exactly where we can least afford it—between a working idea and a working product.
On one end of the spectrum, deployment is overcomplicated and manual. Kubernetes configurations, CI/CD pipelines, container registries, environment variables, secrets management, SSL certificates, DNS records. The list goes on. For many teams, the infrastructure work rivals the application work.
On the other end, a whole industry has formed around Platform-as-a-Service to make shipping easier. And these platforms have helped millions of developers get their code running. But they come with tradeoffs:
- •Limitations on what you can build
- •Restrictions on what stack you can use
- •Costs that balloon as you scale
- •Vendor lock-in that's hard to escape
Neither extreme serves the new generation of builders. They need the flexibility to build anything, with the simplicity to ship it instantly.
Deployment needs its AI moment
If AI can help us write code, why can't it help us ship code?
That's the question we asked when we started building Nexlayer. What if your infrastructure was managed by AI? What if your deploy agent could analyze your project, generate the right configuration, and get anything working in seconds?
Not a simplified platform with guardrails. Not a complex system that requires a dedicated team. Something in between. The power of Kubernetes without the complexity. The simplicity of a PaaS without the limitations.
We're building Nexlayer to be the deployment layer for the AI coding era. A place where builders can ship their ideas and bring them to life—whatever those ideas are, whatever stack they're built with.
The future of building
The way we build software has changed forever. Now it's time for the way we deploy to change too.
We're just getting started, and we'd love for you to join us.