Why Should Your Business Choose Cloud Backend As A Service For App Development

Behind every software application is a series of comprehensive backend services intended for supporting the frontend that you use and see each day. The amount of work that is involved in creating the backend technology is never a simple task. 

Backend as a service or BaaS offers organizations cloud-based services that cater to the backend processing. It frees businesses from purchasing onsite servers, thereby streamlining the backend services.

This blog deals with the in-depth details of cloud BaaS, why it is needed in a business, its pros and cons, real-life examples, and more. Let’s start walking into the world of BaaS.

What Is BaaS? Is It Something Similar To Serverless Computing?

Backend-as-a-service or BaaS is a type of third-party service which allows you to build an intuitive and scalable website or application without worrying about the backend. BaaS frees you from expensive and time-consuming tasks and allows you to focus on the frontend. 

It gives you access to the bundled infrastructure like APIs (Application Programming Interface) and SDKs (Software Development Kit) and saves you from the tiresome task of managing user permission, configuring user authentication, and powering your development. 

Serverless computing is the same as Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS). However, it is a broader term that incorporates FaaS and PaaS. Mobile backend as a service is serverless as you are not required to manage the infrastructure. 

How Does Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) Work?

Having a Backend-as-a-Service solution is one of the best ways to ensure convenience for businesses on a daily basis. The best BaaS tools are ideal for overseeing and managing a cloud infrastructure as well as accelerating the backend development. 

The BaaS products work in three layers:

Foundation: Here, the server appears, where few run the programs and others back up the information. 

Applications: The BaaS products here handle requests (like login). 

Connection: At this layer, the application servers can access the internet.

Bonus Read- A Quick Guide to Mobile App Backend Development 

Why Does Your Business Need a Backend-as-a-Service?

The main business advantage of Backend-as-a-Service is mainly related to productivity gains while outsourcing the cloud management responsibilities. Every small, medium, and large size business will have substantial benefits from using a backend platform. Let’s check out the plus points of using a backend as a service provider:

Better Productivity

One of the prime benefits of mobile backend or BaaS is that it supports companies to focus on the core business operations. The companies, while outsourcing their backend development process, can focus on the major competencies of their business and can handle more important things that need to be done on a priority basis. 

This means better productivity where the team can come up with an app that is more beneficial without wasting time and funds. Therefore, when it comes to the cloud backend, you can significantly reduce the timing of the software development cycles. 

You just need to utilize a specific BaaS provider, and it will divert your attention from the coding part and allow you to focus on other business processes. In this way, you can concentrate on your design and frontend development, thus making your app more crowd-pleasing.

The development team of Appinventiv created an end-to-end secured application for the users of Adidas with a robust backend architecture. The brand gained a huge user base in the UAE. Also, for enhanced productivity, our experts implemented a robust cache management system to eliminate redundancy and faster application performance.

Cost Reduction

With Backend-as-a-Service, you can curb unnecessary expenses. This is one of the most crucial benefits of utilizing a BaaS platform. If you outsource backend development, then you can maintain and roll out your apps with the existing talents. You don’t need to hire full-stack developers or expand your team for troubleshooting your application as you leverage the BaaS vendors’ expertise. 

Do you know what else makes BaaS a cost-efficient solution? 

It brings cloud technology benefits to the table for you. 

In other words, you can simply avoid spending a fortune on the backend hardware and other physical servers with BaaS.

Enhanced Security 

Organizations are constantly bugged by the question if their data will remain secured while utilizing cloud BaaS. The mobile backend as a service helps in exporting data through the Management Console, thus providing the option of choosing the preferred vendor portability. 

In addition to it, the mobile backend as a service offers protection to the bulk data, thus eliminating the unseen risk of cloud computing in a business. There is a so-called Access Control List that keeps the data from hacking by the malefactors. 

Users can now enjoy end-to-end security with the help of Backend-as-a-Service while utilizing their applications. The mobile app backend services work with well-established security practices and offer a more robust environment than a self-coded backend. Other than that, the backend as a service provider offers the ready-to-use GDPR protocols. By leveraging BaaS, companies outsource their data processing requirements to any third party while saving their additional server setup time.

Scalability 

An mBaaS solution offers you scalable options. This means that you can easily adapt your app for any kind of platform that you feel is suitable for your business. Organizations often require scaling up their resources, and the Backend-as-a-Service makes the process very straightforward and smoother. It also improves the performance as it works on a well-designed, robust infrastructure. 

Putting forward a few examples of best features that lead to better performance include multi-region deployments, implementation of the ready-to-use CDNs, and new-generation virtual machines.

The Appinventors also came up with another mobile application for Asian Bank by utilizing the best backend tools and technologies. The app helps its users in storing, transacting, and converting cryptocurrencies into fiat currency. More than 50k cryptocurrency transactions have been made to date. The app ensured the utmost scalability as it also gave the users multi-functional benefits. 

Stronger Focus On Front-End Development

Since Backend-as-a-Service comes with the key backend features, therefore you will have more resources and time to focus and look after the front-end development. These tools can help you accommodate the increased usage rates without any complex backend work.

By focusing on the front-end development, you are also focusing on the user experience. A great user experience is essential, as it increases engagement and builds trust in a brand. Trading off the user interface for creating repetitive backend tasks is not exactly a smart choice. 

BaaS as a service will free the development resources that are being utilized on the backend, thus allowing the company to invest more time and energy on the front-end side. For instance, Appinventiv experts have built an AI-based analytic platform on the cloud premise for a leading global bank to enhance its customer retention and CRM system. 

Competitive Edge To The Business

With a mobile Backend-as-a-Service solution, MVPs or Minimum Viable Products can be deployed faster. As a result of this, your company will get quick feedback from the end-user in a shorter span of time than the traditional backend coding. 

This will allow your business to remain on a competitive edge, as you will know beforehand how your users are interacting with your product. Mobile backend services allow a faster launch of MVP. For instance, a SaaS-based company like Appinventiv can help you boost your earnings by creating an MVP for your product idea. 

Lean Management

Businesses can perform more efficiently with the cloud. By utilizing BaaS as a service, you can migrate your existing workforce to focus mainly on the core tasks of monitoring the infrastructure and improvising them. 

Therefore, by outsourcing BaaS, you are not just enhancing the productivity level of your team but also ensuring lean management. Read how Appinventiv aligns lean principles in the software development process.

Real-Life Examples Of Enterprises Utilizing BaaS

When it comes to utilizing BaaS services, then you will find a lot of real-life examples in terms of its scalability, cost reduction, and building a SaaS-based app. I have listed some of them below:

1. The Food Cowboy 

By leveraging the BaaS Service, The Food Cowboy, an organization encouraging the best utilization of the wholesome unmarketable food, saved dollars in software app development costs. 

They launched an initial version of their app. Although it had few limited features, they were able to show its MVP to potential users and investors. 

2. Neiman Marcus

Neiman Marcus, an online apparel store, wanted to build an omnichannel digital selling app, Connect as Covid-19 lockdowns hit their online sales. They needed a reliable tool for managing their customer data and making each interaction unique. 

The team, therefore, utilized BaaS for seamless backend functionality and infrastructure which helped them beat the deadline and reduce the overall development cost. 

3. VantageBP 

VantageBP has been helping brands identify fraud resellers and eradicate counterfeits. Using a Backend-as-a-Service solution allowed VantageBP in cutting down their time and cost. They validated their MVP much faster and scaled up their infrastructure. 

Here’s what the CTO of VantageBP had to say about utilizing the BaaS platform:

“The nice thing is that I don’t have to worry about uptime, scalability, or DevOps issues.”

Joren Winge, VantageBP CTO

Business Constraints With Backend-as-a-Service

Although BaaS services have a long list of benefits that can easily integrate with the front-end programming, the service also contains a few minor inherent flaws. This includes

1. Lesser Control Over The Coding Structure

If you are too cautious about getting the little lines of codes corrected, then you might feel a sense of struggle while controlling the BaaS platform. Anyway, you will be saving a lot of time in the development process, but the only problem would be that you won’t get complete control of tweaking every small thing.

2. Vendor Lock-In

Another problem that most businesses face is the inability to move from one BaaS platform to another. While the service providers claim that the developers can migrate their applications, the technology might come as an obstacle in moving the code that connects both the back and front-end elements to a new platform. The developer would require to recreate the connections as the backend elements won’t move to the new provider or platform.

Let The Cloud Consultants Of Appinventiv Help You Out

The main reason to utilize BaaS as a service platform is to reduce the app launch time, outsource the infrastructure management and lower the development cost. This BaaS implementation works perfectly for mobile and web apps. 

At Appinventiv, we have helped several clients in their mobile and back and development journey. With a team of excellent tech wizards, we provide the ultimate solution for creating your dream project. Our experts realize that in an era of disruption, a serverless infrastructure can offer much-needed agility to the business for its quick growth. 

As we gradually move to the digitized world, the user experience takes the topmost position. Businesses are now required to consistently juggle to keep up with the expectations of their end-users. If you are someone whose organization needs to stack up on the benefits of serverless computing or BaaS solution, then start with the cloud consulting services of Appinventiv and start reaping the benefits of BaaS.

FAQs

Q. What features does a Backend-as-a-Service have?

A. Backend-as-a-Service has the following list of features:

• Two Factor Authentication
• Data Management
• Real-time database
• User authentication
• Social Integration
• Email Verification

Q. What is the common example of BaaS?

A. A common example of mobile backend services includes a mobile social network that utilizes BaaS for push notifications, social integration, data storage, and the overall management of a physical server.

Q. What is the difference between PaaS and BaaS?

A. PaaS, also known as Platform as a service, is a kind of cloud computing model that offers both software resources and hardware infrastructure. BaaS, on the other hand, stands for Backend as a service, offers access to the entire cloud infrastructure, and performs the backend task automation. 

THE AUTHOR

Sudeep Srivastava

Co-Founder and Director