In the last four years, the wissenswerft has gradually made progress in developing its own backend as a service solution in and parallel to the customer projects. It goes by the name space.one.
The motivation to develop this specific solution results out of two trends or challenges in operational practice.
1. Modelling of heterogeneous data structures on a single platform
12 years ago, we started to develop and run a communication platform for a client. Five years ago, this platform was extended by for multi-client capability with the goal to enable different departments to manage their own topics and content and to make these specific areas accessible to selected user groups. Along with the introduction and usage of these different client spaces grew the need for capabilities to display individual data structures and functionalities. This was challenging as in conjunction with the increasing usage of the platform, the requirements in regard to stability, performance and high maintainability grew, as well.
Our solution for the implementation was based of two fundamental development concepts: High configurability of basic functions, which are used in different contexts, and development of a possibility to create and manage dynamic content types and structures.
Another project of the wissenswerft was a service app, which is used in more than 25 countries – each customized to the market conditions. The various applications access to a common backend, which manages the country-specific contents. Further development of the app and new requirements of the markets created the need for higher adaptability of the backend in this project, too. Therefore it was obvious to integrate the app backend into the platform. From this integration arose another requirement for the development of data interfaces to communicate with app, while considering the flexible data models and the specific requirements of the individual apps.
To also reduce the complexity and ensure high maintainability, it was necessary to implement the following concepts during development:
- Automatic generation of data interfaces (APIs) based on dynamic data models
- Capability to customize the APIs to client requirement
2. Development of synergies and reduction of maintenance costs in app development
The wissenswerft develops native applications for Android, iOS and Windows. Our apps are based – without exception – on a client-server architecture, so that in addition to the development of the actual app, developing a backend with its respective interfaces is always required as well.
Originally, we developed a separat backend for every app. From that, we made the following experiences:
- The respective functions and components to implement are very similar (e.g. user administration, login/registration process, authorization concept, content management, push service, API…)
- The effort for backend development is comparably high and additional developers are needed. See chart!
- The effort for maintenance and operation of different backend systems is high. Therefore it was obvious to use the developed platform as a base for future app projects and to deploy it as backend in further customer projects.
Why are we doing what we are doing and what is our goal?
In all of these app projects the need for higher adaptability of the respective backend arose quickly. That’s why we decided to unify the backends and to expand our self-developed communication platform with the already existing functions like user authentication and media management. Our solution was based on the following fundamental development concepts:
High configurability of basic functions, which are used in different contexts
- Developing a possibility to create and manage dynamic content types and structures
- Automatic generation of data interfaces (APIs) based on dynamic data models
- Capability to customize the APIs to client requirement
In the past two years we have managed to adapt the majority of our self-developed apps to this backend and to operate them with it. After a detailed analyse of the market and potential competitors (both domestic and abroad), we came to the conclusion that our platform already has the relevant functions and features which will represent specific unique selling points.
Our goal is to offer an intuitive backend as a service platform, that – for the first time world wide – can also be operated by IT managers, to master the challenge of lack of resources and IT complexity.
