The demand for BaaS (Backend as a Service) is on the Rise

According to a recent market research report published by MarketsandMarkets, “The global BaaS market size to grow from USD 1.32 Billion in 2015 to USD 28.10 Billion by 2020, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 84.2%.“ Likewise, a special report from Gartner also predicted that “By 2016, 40 percent of mobile application development projects will leverage cloud back-end services, causing development leaders to lose control of the pace and path of cloud adoption within their enterprises.”

The trend indicates a steady increase in the number of enterprises building web applications and mobile apps with an innovative cloud based backend solution like Backend as a Service (BaaS). BaaS makes it easier for developers to connect the applications seamlessly to backend cloud storage and processing. In addition to modularizing the backend system used by the application, BaaS also allows programmers to host many commonly used services on a server stack, and expose them as a service.

They can further easily access the services through a unified software development kit (SDK) and application programming interfaces (API). Hence, the developers can use the unified SDK and API to access commonly used services like push notifications, messaging queue, user management, file storage, data storage, and social integration. At the same time, the fresh cloud based backend solution also helps developers to simplify deployment, monitoring and configuration of various applications.

Understanding Major Business Advantages of BaaS

Flexibility: The BaaS model is actually designed to simplify mobile app development and deployment. But the model can also be used effectively for web application development projects. The developers can take advantage of the flexible properties of BaaS model to create a wide variety of applications. In addition to creating websites and mobile app, they can also use BaaS for developing apps for ebook readers, and other devices related to education and healthcare. At the same time, the model can also be used for deploying API frameworks more efficiently.

Scalability: Many businesses switch to cloud technologies to avail enhanced flexibility and scalability. The cloud storage and processing will help businesses to avoid buying expensive hardware and software. At the same time, they also have option to avail additional BaaS resources according to specific needs of each project. A business can simply incur additional cost to avail additional BaaS resources without any delay.

Simplified Deployment and Maintenance: In addition to building a quality application, the developers also need to deploy and maintain it without any hassle. BaaS enables programmers to incorporate a variety of commonly used services into the app through a unified API and SDK. So the developers are not required to deploy additional packages of APIs while hosting the application. Also, the unified API and SDK make it easier for programmers to maintain and update the application without any hassle. Many BaaS providers even help businesses to host and maintain their applications more efficiently.

Reduced Development Time: The developers have to write flawless backend code to add utilities to the frontend functionalities of the application efficiently. Also, the quality of backend code will have a direct impact in the application’s usability and user experience. So developers have to put additional time and effort for backed development. BaaS makes it easier for programmers to create backend of a web application or mobile app without putting extra time and effort. A business can opt for BaaS to reduce the time to market significantly.

Better Collaboration: Many businesses nowadays develop applications in distributed environments. Likewise, enterprises also deploy separate teams for creating the frontend and backend of the application. There are a number of BaaS platforms which are designed with virtual collaboration capabilities. The virtual collaboration makes it easier for businesses to facilitate collaboration across different teams. A business also has option to share the source code and API among different teams to boost their productivity and reduce development time.

Make Application Deliver Real-Time Data: A business can easily optimize a mobile app’s user experience by making it deliver real-time data to users. MBaaS solutions make it easier for programmers to make the mobile apps deliver real-time data by creating a data persistence layer. They also have option to connect the app directly to the ERP, CRM or similar data source used by the business through the MBaaS solution. So the mobile app can access and deliver real-time data through SDKs and APIs.

Simplify Cross-Platform App Development: MBaaS solutions further make it easier for developers to build cross-platform apps by providing SDK for each mobile platform. The SDK helps developers to accomplish commonly used tasks without developing backend services for each mobile platform separately. They can use the MBaaS solution to generate push notifications, enable geolocation features, and access the backend system of each mobile platform. The SDKs provided by the MBaaS solutions also simplify management of backend of mobile apps across different platforms.

On the whole, BaaS solutions make it easier for developers to focus completely on the application’s user interface and user experience by simplifying backend development. However, it is also important for businesses to understand some of the major shortcomings of BaaS. The cloud based backend solution does not allow users to exercise full control over the infrastructure. Likewise, the users also need to restrict the number of count operations to 160. The business further needs to avail custom backend cloud to keep the applications secure. So each business must identify and resolve several issues to take full advantage of BaaS.