Amazon have just announced Amazon Cognito – a new server technology for rapid development of Mobile App Servers.

Servers are a common feature of iPhone Apps and Android Apps. In its simplest form, a mobile app server allows apps to share data. Although iPhone Apps and Android Apps have access to the internet, they can’t talk directly to another copy of the same app on a different phone, except in special circumstances (e.g. if both apps are on the same WIFI network). There are various technical reasons for this, though one of the most important is the apps simply can’t find each other.

Instead, iPhone Apps and Android Apps use their internet access to contact a server, at a known internet address, which relays messages between different phones.

Amazon Cognito aims to simplify this process, by reducing the effort required to create new app servers. Instead of having to write variations of the same server code again and again, apps which need to share data can link up to Amazon Cognito, with minimal bespoke server code and server configuration.

Contact me if you would like to find out more about how Amazon Cognito could simplify the design and cut the cost of your next iPhone App or Android App.