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Protect Yourself from the Facebook/Parse Fiasco

February 04, 2016

Facebook announced its decision to discontinue Parse, a mobile app development platform. This leaves many app owners and developers scrambling to find alternatives. Though Parse has a migration tool and a “winding down” period to help people transition, the effects are immediate and leaving people fuming. What can we learn from this? How can developers and CIOs make solid business investments and decisions without risking the same thing happening with other mobile app development platforms?  

 

First, let’s talk about what Parse is (or was). Parse had a lot of benefits for developers, including being extremely cheap and easy to use, with little need for server backend knowledge by the developer. Parse was a mobile app development platform with a system of databases that managed operating systems and tracked user information. Apps could have features such as push notifications easily. It had high scalability and included analytics and storage.

 

Sounds great, right? But ask the developers and CIOs how they feel about it now that they are suddenly expected to migrate elsewhere.

 

Facebook acquired Parse in 2013 for a reported $85 million with an estimated 100,000 apps being supported at the time. Facebook was looking to diversify and find the next big thing. With an exploding mobile app development industry, this acquisition made sense at the time. Facebook spent time and money investing in Parse over the last three years, adding features to its service and tools to help developers. But three years later, it wasn’t financially beneficial for Facebook to have a paid platform anymore.

 

So now that Parse is winding down, it’s a ticking time bomb and disastrous to those relying on it. Parse is helping their users migrate to other platforms, but apps and their features can stop working.  Broken or unusable apps mean users will stop using those products, spelling financial trouble to investors. The sudden burden of work to migrate the platforms and try to fix these problems before they affect user experience rests on developers and CTOs, adding countless hours of work, and plenty of headaches and frustration.

 

So how do you protect yourself? Here is advice from business experts in the mobile app industry.

 

Hire a Trusted Mobile App Development Company

The lesson learned here is to choose a mobile app development company who develop long-lasting relationships with their clients. People should be extra attentive when choosing who to trust with their app development. Hire a mobile app development company who have an investment in their own technology and won’t sell out for the “next big thing” like Parse and Facebook did, looking for a quick pay day.

 

Build Your Own Backend Server

It’s also essential to build your own backend server. This was a major mistake of those who relied on Parse–it freed up the developer to not need a backend server because it was provided for them. When hiring a development firm, make sure they do the backend themselves, so you have your own backend server. Perfected App provides this smart solution.

 

At Perfected App, we are happy to assist you more on this topic. We are a leading cross-platform mobile app development company that has invested in their own innovative technology with both front- and backend server capabilities. Our in-house team will handle all of your technology needs. And we create flawless apps faster than any other company. Technologies used include Xamarin, AngularJS, and NodeJS — we pride ourselves on exceeding customers’ expectations. Email [email protected] for more information.