2017 disAPPearing: Mobile Dev & Cloud Services in Review

As we come to the end of another year we reflect on the changes and growth in our own lives; personally and professionally and – in doing so – stop to review how the world of technology is constantly enhanced, making improvements to every aspect of our workspace daily. The functionality of an app will determine if server development is required to support the app.

If we roll back 15 years, a lifetime in this development space, companies needing a server had to buy a piece of hardware, find a place to host it, deal with the burden of maintenance and capital expenditures for an item that was constently depreciating.

With the introduction of cloud services and hosted solutions the need to physically own the hardware became unnecessary. “Click here” on a website and reach server backend hosts such as Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, and Rackspace, and pull more services, or downsize if necessary, allowing customers to manage the backend themselves.

“All three of these companies, and there are others, who provide excellent service. We all have a responsibility to perform an analysis to determine which server host best fits the requirements,” said Eric Silverthorn, president of Dallas-area based Semaphore Mobile which, since 2008, has produced nearly 400 iPhone apps and close to 300 for Android users. “User login for instance requires a database that holds its client’s information. In some instances, such as apps that allow users to play videos, an app may need content management to support the backend system to hold the videos.”

There are third party companies, such as Twilio, that allow app owners to leverage the functionality such as user authentication or build of chat rooms. These services, offered through API connections can save a significant amount of time and money when building an app.

“Semaphore Mobile’s team of programmers, for IOS, Android, and Ruby on Rails, provide superior development services for our clients,” said Silverthorn. “New year, new season, and for our Semaphore’s team in our tenth year in the market providing development, strong service and support, and good guidance.”