The risk of cloud....

I got the above email today...  a mobile app I built based on a simple, friendly platform is going to have to be updated to use a new back-end provider.

We have a difficult announcement to make. Beginning today we're winding down the Parse service, and Parse will be fully retired after a year-long period ending on January 28, 2017. We're proud that we've been able to help so many of you build great mobile apps, but we need to focus our resources elsewhere.

Parse is a platform that makes it easy to build out an application that has a back-end.  It supports simple models, identity, images and a lot of other simple features my app needed.  On the surface, it looks great and not following my own advice, I didn't go any deeper than the online help and the recommendation of a "guy I know"!  But since Facebook owns Parse, I felt pretty confident.

But it isn't as bad as all that... I wrote my application abstracting away the calls to Parse.  But I do need to rewrite, and re-test my application.

My next step is to research options - I'll most likely move my app to the Google Cloud platform where I'm more certain of stability, performance, functionality and a lot of other non-functionals.

The message is that always be ready to completely re-architect your application. The driver may come from a new form factor (a watch, tablet, voice, car, or something completely new) or from your favorite provider going out of business. Or just a complete re-architecture because you chose poorly (like when Facebook had to completely re-write the HTML5-based mobile app).

So, goodbye Parse... sad to see you go... but it won't be the death of my app... just an annoyance.