This sponsored post is produced by Bitcasa.

Creating an app involves a lot of moving parts. Early in the design process, decisions have to be made around how app data will be stored, and for most developers the cloud is an obvious choice. Then comes the next important decision: invest time, energy and resources in creating your own DIY file system that sits on top of the public cloud infrastructure; or take the shortcut and use a cloud storage API, and surrender their users’ data to popular cloud storage services.

More and more are choosing the latter, but the results could include:

  • A disjointed experience between the primary and cloud applications
  • Losing customer data to another company which restricts your ability to analyze customers usage holistically
  • Brand dilution due to the fragmented user experience

The good news is that a third option is emerging that will give developers the simplicity of plugging into an API, while offering developers ownership of data, flexibility, scalability and, most importantly, performance. In this emerging space, companies like Bitcasa (a plug-and-play file system platform), are allowing developers to create a layer of logic that sits on top of public cloud infrastructure — effectively a cloud file system offered as a service. This means you don’t need to invest time and money in doing it yourself, and you no longer need to surrender your users’ data and compromise app performance by using quick-fix API alternatives.

Going forward, it’s pretty much guaranteed that the next generation of apps will require better file systems that offer broad capabilities, performance, security and scalability, and most importantly, developer control of user data and experience. By leveraging specialist cloud file systems, developers will gain access to proven technology that’s already been tested across millions of users. It’s a comforting thought if you’re looking for rapid growth and user adoption.

These highly accessible and secure file systems will also give app developers the ability to offer sought-after functionality instantly — features such as file sync, sharing, media transcoding and streaming, as well as organization of meta data.

Building apps on a scalable and secure platform will give developers complete control of user data and user experience. The result? Developers can be free to focus once again on what they do best — delivering high quality app experience.

Bitcasa is currently opening access to all developers who want to take advantage of its CloudFS APIs. Sign up for a free account here.

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