knowing when to build versus buy a mobile backend

Knowing When To Build Versus Buy A Mobile

BackendPresented by Murtza Manzur, Developer Evangelist at

InMobi

InMobi: World’s Largest Independent Mobile Ad Network

• 1B unique users across 30k+ apps

• 80 of the top 100 AdAge brands advertise on the InMobi network

• Recognized by MIT Technology Review as one of the 50 Most Disruptive Companies in the world

Agenda• Do you need a mobile backend?• Pros and cons of buying a mobile backend• Pros and cons of building a mobile backend

Mobile Backend Enables More App Features

User Management & Authentication

Notifications File Storage Social Integration

ChatBackground

Jobs On Server

Activity Streams

Usage Analysis

Buy Case Study: Orbitz & Parse• Orbitz uses Parse in its mobile

app, where 1 in 3 of Orbitz’s traveling bookings happen

• Uses Parse Push to notify app users of changes in their trips

• Uses Parse Core to keep users’ recent Orbitz searches available and to remove old data

Pros of Buying a Mobile BackendNo backend

server to maintain

No server-side code to

writeSave time

Scalable No database management SDKs

Cons of Buying a Mobile Backend

Vendor lock-in

On-prem not offered by all

vendorsCompany shutdown

Service failure

Data accessibility

Don’t have full control

MBaaS Offer Tiered Pricing

• Free Tier: 30 requests per second

• $200/month: 50 requests per second

• Next Paid Tier: $300/month

• Free Tier: 1k max active users

• $200/month: 100k max active users

• Next Paid Tier: $1200/month

MBaaS Vendor Analysis• Does the vendor have the features you need in a mobile

backend?

• Is their data model flexible? What object types are supported?

• What is the pricing model?

• Do you need an on-premise solution or a cloud one?

• Will it scale in terms of users and geos?

Build Case Study: WhatsApp• WhatsApp is used by

900M people• Built a custom stack

with Erlang, Yaws, and FreeBSD

• Handle 2.5M concurrent connections per server

Pros of Building a Mobile BackendHost on-prem if needed

Data model flexibility

Use existing APIs

Leverage open-source

Secure own data

Handle scaling and

latency

Cons of Building a Mobile Backend

Maintain client code to

consume APIs

Maintain server-side

codeSlower

implementation

Maintain server

Solve syncing challenges

Secure own data

Many Options for Building Your App Backend

Takeaways• Having a mobile backend enables more app

features• Many options for both building and buying a mobile

backend• Build versus buy should be a calculated decision

based on app and organizational needs

Questions?• Murtza Manzur, Developer Evangelist at InMobi• murtza.manzur@inmobi.com