DZone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
Refcards Trend Reports Events Over 2 million developers have joined DZone. Join Today! Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile Manage Email Subscriptions Moderation Admin Console How to Post to DZone Article Submission Guidelines
View Profile
Sign Out
Refcards
Trend Reports
Events
Zones
Culture and Methodologies Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
Culture and Methodologies
Agile Career Development Methodologies Team Management
Data Engineering
AI/ML Big Data Data Databases IoT
Software Design and Architecture
Cloud Architecture Containers Integration Microservices Performance Security
Coding
Frameworks Java JavaScript Languages Tools
Testing, Deployment, and Maintenance
Deployment DevOps and CI/CD Maintenance Monitoring and Observability Testing, Tools, and Frameworks
What's in store for DevOps in 2023? Hear from the experts in our "DZone 2023 Preview: DevOps Edition" on Fri, Jan 27!
Save your seat

Parse Shutting Down: Maybe We Should Lower Our Expectations Of Tech Just A Little Bit

This just in: parse, the MBaaS, is shutting down for good. Here's a quick overview of this momentous event, and what it means for the space.

Kin Lane user avatar by
Kin Lane
·
Feb. 01, 16 · News
Like (2)
Save
Tweet
Share
4.49K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free

The mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) platform Parse is shutting down. I started tracking on Parse as part of my BaaS research a couple years back, something that resulted in having all of the BaaS providers, including Ilya Sukhar (@) of Parse, on stage at @APIStrat NYC in early 2013--this conversation was just a couple months before Parse was acquired by Facebook. 

Parse was widely considered to be the top BaaS platform, which resulted in wide adoption, something that I'm sure grew exponentially after the purchase by Facebook. Parse is giving everyone a year to migrate, providing a database migration tool, as well as open sourcing a version of the platform. Which I think is a pretty fair deprecation strategy for customers, even with the unexpected news.

Despite that the tech highway is littered with these types of acquisitions, and deprecations, the tech blogosphere, and social bookmarkosphere (is that a word?), loves to squawk when these happen. Competitors like AWS, Google, and others love to invite you to come use their platform, and the technorati love to point out how you cannot depend on any platform--which is the truth. 

Personally, I enjoy taking these moments to explore why the space thinks technology is such an absolute, where these ways of thought rarely exist in other sectors. I think there are a couple distinct things at play:

  1. Promises Of Tech Providers - In an effort to get new users, tech solution providers make some pretty wild promises of how they'll make your life easier, do all the hard work for you, all you have to do is just believe in them. Never mentioning you aren't really their true target customer, an acquisition by big tech company is their true customer.
  2. Religious Belief In Technology - Like the marketing of providers, developers, and other folks who drink the Silicon Valley Kool-Aid, really, really, really belive that technology is the answer, it will save us, and all of this is inevitable. Thus, we believe the tech will always be there to save us, and are so willing to ignore the actual business and politics of all of this.

As I've stated in earlier posts, there are no guarantees your vendors will always be there in other business sectors, what the hell makes us think our tech vendors will always be there? There is no basis for believing a platform or API will ALWAYS be there, no matter what you are promised. Companies go out of business, get acquired, and in this fast-paced tech climate, companies are always looking to deliver the latest product, and features. Everything in the space points to disruption, change, and evolution, where the hell did we get the idea these services shouldn't go away?

I think the tech blogosphere, social bookmarkosphere, and startup elite and believers should lower our expectations of technology just a little bit. Internet outages, acquisitions, and roadmap shifts will always happen--seems to me, these are the only constants! As a small business operator (I am not a startup), I am constantly evaluating what my Plan B, C, D, E, and even F is. While I may not always be prepared for changes in the landscape, rarely you will catch me squawking too loudly, as I'm business executing on the next stage of my evolution.

However, you will hear me exploring, and understanding these topics, as they occur--because that is fun and educational!

Small business mobile app Space (architecture) Moment Conversations (software) Operator (extension) Adoption dev

Published at DZone with permission of Kin Lane, DZone MVB. See the original article here.

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • The Future of Cloud Engineering Evolves
  • Unleashing the Power of JavaScript Modules: A Beginner’s Guide
  • Type Variance in Java and Kotlin
  • Top Five Tools for AI-based Test Automation

Comments

Partner Resources

X

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends: