Databases are the backbone of any application, either web or mobile-based. So, the biggest challenge for many aiming to build a function-rich app is the choice of the right database for them. Choosing an appropriate database is the decisive factor regarding the success of any application in terms of its performance and availability to the customers.
5 Key Factors to Check While Choosing your Mobile App Database
When it comes to smartphone applications, previously internet connection was needed for the applications to work, not that is also noted required in many cases. Nowadays, if the phone apps rely on a connection, there are high chances that the users may experience some sluggishness in it. So, to cut short, the need for mobile apps to rely much on the network, cloud database providers now offer synchronization with offline capabilities to enhance mobile app performance. Say, for example, some of the industry-best mobile app database providers offering database synchronization are:
- Amazon Cognito
- Microsoft Azure Mobile
- Google Firebase
- Couchbase Mobile etc.
All these databases come in with built-in synch features to meet the changing needs of the mobile application market. With this, the application owners can ensure that their apps work both offline as well as online.
Major choices of mobile app databases
There are various choices in mobile application databases as:
- Data warehouses help collect, store, analyze, and manipulate large data sets for an extended time.
- Distributed databases help to manage data from various geographical locations, each of which has its own custom set of databases coming over to the main DB.
- End-user databases which are apt for businesses, which acts as limited localized databases.
- Operational databases using which various functional databases can be accessed and manipulated for multiple business needs.
- Relational databases are a one-stop-shop for all databases where the data is stored centrally in data tables with unique key fields to connect one table to the related tables.
With many choices available, the application owners must choose the right option of the database, which can have a long-term impact in terms of the performance and availability of your mobile application, and decisive of its user acceptance.
However, with a lot of options available in the marketplace, how to choose the right database platform for your mobile application. This is a crucial question, for which we are trying to dig out the answer.
5 key factors to consider for choosing the right database solution
- The structure of your data
Whatever the nature of your application is, the data structure will dictate how it is stored in the DB and how it is retrieved. As most mobile apps deal with data in varying formats, building successful mobile apps, and selecting a database must include the most appropriate structures for proper storage and retrieval.
If you fail to understand the data structure, your mobile app may tend to slow down in terms of data retrieval from the DB. Adding to it, it may also require more developmental efforts and time to work on the data-related issues than come up. Some of the other data-centered elements which play a vital in terms of the data structure are:
- Accessibility
- Data size to be stored
- Multiple databases to be stores.
- Scalability and speed requirements.
- How much flexibility is needed in your data modeling?
To appropriately articulate your data effectively, you need to identify the degree of flexibility required for your database. The most critical aspect here is that proper modeling will allow you to plan your database structure to meet the growing requirements over time. For remote support and database consulting needs, you can get expert assistance by RemoteDBA.com experts.
As we know, mobile applications evolve rapidly as of late. The nature of the same also keeps on changing, so that too is an essential factor. In this fast-evolving mobile app scenario, relational databases may find to be the right choice with the need to ensure solid consistency. This is also true when the data is mainly relational. However, if there are more relaxed requirements than SQL, NoSQL databases may be the ideal option to ensure more flexibility.
- Supported platforms
You need to check whether you are developing the app for Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile OS, etc. Most modern applications need to be compatible with smart wearables and other third-party hardware for seamless performances.
Even if you plan to start for one operating system and further expand it later, it is ideal for making that consideration now itself. The majority of the mobile applications now also evolve to incorporate its web companion too as desktop or native app. So, that is also needed to be considered while you design database centered mobile applications.
- The need for data security
Whether at motion or rest, high-level data security needs to be maintained properly and consistently. If the data storage is decentralized and synchronized, then it is essential to enable secured access and transmission. As a result of this, you have to look at the various aspects of data security as authentication, data in motion and rest, read-write access, etc. On considering authentication, it needs to be flexible to allow public, standard, and custom authentications. Along with this, it is also vital to ensure anonymous access too. For allowing data to rest on the client and server, you have to support both this encryption and data-level encryption.
- Resolving data conflicts
As we know, the mobile platforms or other such platforms that use decentralized data may experience conflicts so quickly as the same data type can be modified by multiple devices simultaneously. As a result of the same, you may need very robust support to resolve any conflicts. The most important thing to consider here is the flexibility required for the database to manage the conflict resolution. The database you choose must be able to automatically practice optimum conflict resolution on the mobile device, by an external system, by a human, and on the cloud.
The process of conflict resolution differs from system to system, and it is always better to go with some systems like the Couchbase Mobile using revision trees with some default resolution rules. This is also the same method used by Git, which is quite different from the clock-based systems. In mobile applications, the latter is mostly unsuitable as there could be many issues related to the clock differences across various devices.
Walter Moore is a notable management consultant and digital marketing expert. He is an experienced digital marketer and has helped e-commerce businesses in all niches gain with his effective marketing strategies and guidance.
