How to refresh data using parse and swift?

Has anyone used a BaaS like Parse and then rolled their own backend while live and with a considerable amount of users?

• We started out with Parse because it was the easiest but now that our app is close to beta trying to figure out our backend plan going forward. I would really like some feedback based on people that have been in this exact scenario. Here are the facts of our app: - It's a kind of social photo app for language learning so the storage can be considerable. - It's highly social so if successful there will be an exponential growth in API calls - It's niche (language learning), so even if it blows up beyond my wildest dreams, the blow up will be measured. I see 3 options for ourselves based on how much (future) money we have to hire someone to do this. 1. (most convenient) Switch to a DaaS like http://mongolab.com. It's cheaper than Parse and since Parse is based on MongoDB I'm thinking the switch could be easy - no need to mess with the data model. But I have only glanced at MongoLab. 2. (cheapest) Use MongoDB on AWS. Once again I'm assuming that the parse-to-mongo switch will be relatively easy. Pls correct me if this assumption is wrong. However, we'd have to maintain our own installation. 3. (mysql) Use MySQL on AWS. I'm throwing this out because while setting up the data model I wished I was using a relational DB. There are a good amount of relations in the data, but Parse was just the easiest option. As you can probably tell, I'm kind of a novice with backend stuff, so I don't know how hard it would be to switch from key-value to relational while live. I know this is long but it seems like a lot of startups would have these same exact concerns. Thanks for your help!

• Answer:

  Let me make sure I understand your question - You want to retain the app along with its customer base but move away from Parse. If this is correct, the concern shouldn't be so much about your choice of database but maintaining the API compatibility during the switch. Most of the BaaS platforms expose an API that gets hardwired into your mobile app. This is the facade that abstracts the underlying datastore which could be a NoSQL DB or a traditional RDBMS. Switching to a custom backend or another BaaS provider can be very disruptive which will break your app. If you have already decided to make that one time switch, you have two choices - Build your custom backend the traditional way - You own the entire stack that includes the API endpoints to the middleware to the persistent datastore. This involves managing and maintaining the whole stack all the way from OS patches to code updates. Given the fact that you have social integration and storage needs, you need to integrate object storage and the social media API into your backend. The advantage you get with is the control and transparency. Roll-out a Private MBaaS stack - This is an easier option which gives you a canned MBaaS layer that you can deploy in a private or single-tenant mode. It will save you from the pain of developing, deploying and managing the backend mentioned in the first option. http://www.kinvey.com/enterprise/features has an option to deploy into an EC2 instance running within a VPC or on a dedicated box. http://www.anypresence.com/build-apps.php is another MBaaS player which offers deployment flexibility. Both these stacks support scale-out architecture making it elastic and easy to grow the backend. If you have appetite for open source MBaaS stack, you can considerhttp://%20h%20ttps://code.google.com/p/openmobster/wiki/GetStartedLatest or http://strongloop.com/. Hope this was helpful!