What is a Backend as a Service (Baas)

Question

I would like an explanation of what a Baas is that would overcome some doubts:

• What is Baas?

• In general, they are an API and/or framework and/or library? Why?

• What are the main ones? What are the advantages and disadvantages between them?

• What are the main technologies behind them?

Answer 1

I will give an objective and subjective answer.

Backend as a Service is a set of services, or microservices, if you prefer, that gives you "everything" you need to maintain a solution that interacts with diverse customers, in general you talk a lot about mobile and web, but it is anything that uses web technologies to communicate, so that what you need to develop in backend minimum, that is, you were just what is specific, no need to worry about what virtually every application has to do, no worries about infrastructure, nothing that is a general and known problem.

We can say that it is a Serverless with a more specific activity.

Well roughly speaking it’s like you have a CMS ready for use, where you customize some things. It itself is a framework, but with a slightly different use.

In general it is provided as a API, same as in a framework, but the latter you have the software in your hands and do what you want with it, including put where you want and take care of as you want, already the Baas you just have to use the API, everything is ready for use.

It has nothing very special that does not exist in other ways, it is a cloud with access to the database in a more controlled way, with facilities for content storage, indexing, user management and common interaction with them, exchanges and message routing, integrations, including with social networks and other mass software, notifications, statistics on the use of your service, advertising control and monetization, specific services such as chat and other collaborative means, business rules, and added features that are common to various application types.

It is complicated to make a list of suppliers and list what is good or bad of each one. I will quote just two examples of giants: Azure Mobile and Firebase.

This is a legitimate way for the industry to offer something ready that makes it easier for anyone who is not a programmer or who has difficulty, or who needs something fast. It’s obviously something with a higher cost than if you decided to do it on your own and it’s less flexible. But it can be cheaper if you count all the work to do something specific, if you tell people that you can do it wrong, have security breaches, and have other difficulties. Of course everything can go wrong, Baas is not silver bullet, nothing is.

You have to decide if it is the one that best suits you, which will give the best experience to your users, who are within the financial expectations of who pays the bill.

Answer 2

A Baas can be seen as a bridge connecting the backend and the frontend of an application. The Baas help developers accelerate the creation of web and mobile applications and simplify the creation of Apis. Instead of coding the entire backend, the developer uses the Baas to create the Apis and connect them to applications.

Why use a Baas?

Backend-as-a-service (Baas) is a cloud computing service that serves as middleware. It provides developers with a how to connect your mobile and web applications to cloud services start from Apis and Sdks.

The Baas enables mobile and web developers to abstract completely the server-side infrastructure (server side Infrastructure). Developers can assemble the blocks of necessary building and just writing the code that connects them. This allows developers to focus on the teaching experience (Front end U/X) rather than dealing with the infrastructure and coding of backend.

Web and mobile applications demand a set of features analogous and many repetitive activities. For example, the creation of a Log In and Log Out page is present on almost all websites and makes enough sense to automate your creation. There are many others examples of common repetitive activities in applications, such as email notification, integration with social networks and notifications Push. In general, these services feature their own API and need be incorporated separately to the application. Creation demands a lot time and effort and can be automated with the use of a Baas.

One of the main objectives of Baas is to automate activities repetitive and avoid using developers to perform low added value. In this way, hours allocated to the development of a software project are restricted to tasks complex and high added value that cannot be automated. The total cost of developing a backend can be reduced by up to 80% from the use of a Baas and development time backend can also be minimized.

The learning time for use of a Baas is relatively small, allowing a Frontend or Mobile developer to build an entire software project for smaller-scale systems (frontend + backend) alone. For larger projects, the developer of backend can focus its efforts on high value-added activities.

Main companies in the Baas market

Until the beginning of 2016 the largest representative of the Baas era the Parse.com. The company, which is part of Facebook, has more than one million applications installed on your platform, and over 600,000 users. Parse was acquired by Facebook in 2013, but at the beginning 2016 the social network decided to finalize the company’s operations. In 2017 the platform will be discontinued. With this, millions of applications have to look for alternatives for migration. Some Baas options are shown below:

• Back4app - Company created in Brazil that assists developers and companies migrating applications from Parse. Supports web, mobile and Iot applications and is Open Source.
• Firebase - Allows data storage, user authentication, static hosting, and more.
• AWS Mobile Hub - This is a direct Parse replacement who recently left for AWS. Although this is in Beta, AWS is a well-respected platform that supports many major companies like Netflix and Yelp. AWS Mobile Hub - Develop, Test, and Launch Mobile Apps
• Backand - A platform that allows you to create an Angularjs ready infrastructure for your application.
• Rapidapi - A back-end platform that allows data recording and API integration.
• Stamplay - Allows building applications in your browser without coding using Apis as blocks.

See a list in Quora with main alternatives to Parse.

Marketplace

As shown on the Technavio and Marketsandmarkets websites, Baas market will have growth rate above 80% per year and will reach 28 billion dollars in 2020, that is, it will be approximately 10 times the current at the end of the decade.

Growth will be driven by application-driven economies worldwide and the indispensability of mobile applications in the creation of economic value. Applications also present an impact quite large in industries as a whole and bring about change disruptive in business and processes. The concept of mobility revolves around applications and virtually all organizations are investing in mobile applications to increase mobility.

By 2020 there will be about 20 million developers in the world and this will become one of the most growing professional groups. The developers will be divided between 140 thousand startups, 230 thousand systems development companies and various other segments of businesses.

Perks

Suppliers - The market is relatively mature and there are numerous reliable suppliers for all kinds of needs. Effort Developer - A developer can save weeks on what concerns the creation of a backend. A Baas is a pretty good alternative to accelerate the development of systems. Monetization - Given that the time for creating an application is much smaller, the MVP can be launched very quickly. Consequently, revenue generation starts earlier. Very important, especially for startups. Scalability - The number of users can be scaled without interruptions or performance loss. Security - Baas companies provide very good security protocols.

Disadvantages

Control - Developers have less control over code source and access to the backend is more restricted. Vendor Lock In - The user should be cautious and evaluate very carefully the suppliers. It is a long-term decision and preference should be given suppliers enabling data migration to be need. Keywords: Baas ,API , Backend, Parse, Parse Alternative, Firebase, Parse Migration, Backend as a Service, Server, Infrastructure.

Technologies Involving the Baas

The Baas provides cloud storage in a database Nosql (Mongodb, Dynamodb, etc..), but not only that, most of us have SDK’s well developed with components robust as:

Push notifications - On some servers it is possible to have a detailed analysis of the push sent. Ex: Who Received, Who Opened.

Integration with Social Networks - It is possible to add login with facebook in a few lines.

Storage services of files - Many use Amazon S3 to optimize this service

Geoqueries - It is possible to mount location querys quickly. Ex: You need to find people within 1km radius.

ACL - Access control done at user level, profile, Collection (abstraction of Nosql tables).

Offline App - For app’s mobile this feature is essential, it saves logs locally and on some SDK’s a sync is done automatically as soon as the app gets online.

User management - Registration, password recovery, login, email sending. All ready.