After landing its mobile database in iOS and Android apps used by more than billion people, Realm Inc. is shifting focus to a new goal: making money from its massive installed base.

The San Francisco-based startup today launched a commercial offering that promises to help developers implement data sharing features more easily. Dubbed the Realm Mobile Platform, it pairs the company’s namesake object store with a server-side management stack that can be deployed in the cloud or on private servers. The system makes it possible to sync information from handsets to a backend processing environment without the massive amounts of custom code normally required for the task.

According to Realm, its platform handles not only the transfer of data itself but also related operations such as reconciling conflicting records. Then, once information from a handset is loaded into a company’s server-side environment, it can be used for various tasks that would consume too much processing power if performed on the device itself.

A retailer, for instance, could use the Realm Mobile Platform to power a shopping app that generates custom promotions based on customer purchases. The software also enables data to be synchronized across devices in scenarios where users need to interact with one another. Realm sees this latter feature coming handy for everything from multiplayer games to collaboration apps.

Companies with even more advanced requirements can use a data connector included in the package to stream information from their apps to a backend analytics system. It works the other way around too, which facilitates the creation of mobile clients for accessing business records. Complementary authentication and access control features enable organizations to ensure that mobile workers interact with their data securely.

The Realm Mobile Platform is available immediately in three versions. The basic Developer Edition is free, while the commercial tiers start at $1,500 per month and provide features such as automatic backups.

Image courtesy of Realm