Cloudant the company behind CouchDB has released open-source Android and iOS sync libraries for developers to manage and replicate mobile application data on phones, tablets and other occasionally connected devices.

The Cloudant Sync for Android and Cloudant Sync for iOS libraries are designed for use by mobile developers to build offline access in their mobile applications. The open source libraries are available under Apache License Version 2.0 for developers. Both libraries are compatible with NoSQL database-as-a-service as well as with Apache CouchDB.

The simplified APIs provided with the library comes with a device-local database indexing and query layer, which already provides the mobile user experience aspect of almost all modern application development projects. Cloudant Sync can help remove the complexity of managing and replicating local data on mobile devices, enabling developers to focus on the application user experience. The sync stores application data to a device’s local database thus enabling applications to collect data even if there is no connectivity.

According to Cloudant, the proliferation of mobile backend-as-a-service (MBaaS) providers indicates the need for specialized mobile development platforms, as well as the need for data to be seamlessly shared, stored, and replicated between devices and the cloud. Cloudant implements a native code-friendly API for managing JSON documents and can also work in conjunction with popular MBaaS platforms like Parse, StackMob, and Kinvey.

“Cloudant Sync’s features also include local indexing and querying, management of conflicting documents, and support for binary attachments. The library also permits a high volume of local datastores to synchronize with remote databases simultaneously, allowing developers to scale apps in proportion with growing user bases,” said Dan DeMichele, Cloudant vice president of product.

The Android library currently supports creating, updating and deleting documents (database CRUD). Cloudant says this feature enables developers to incorporate bidirectional sync between a remote database in the cloud and a local datastore controlled by the application, which is the feature that allows users to manipulate data even when devices are not connected to the Internet.

Cloudant Sync builds on the company’s 24/7 DBaaS management, scalable infrastructure and global hosting partnerships. The open source technologies also helps prevent vendor lock-in to one set of tools or cloud platforms.

“Keeping with our commitment to open technologies, we’re open-sourcing the code for Cloudant Sync,” said DeMichele. “A fast adoption rate for the product helps Cloudant as a company, of course, but we hope to see the community porting Cloudant Sync to other mobile operating systems and adding support for new replication protocols that can synchronize devices with other cloud databases. Making our products as open as possible gives our customers more options to avoid lock-in.”

MBaaS is clearly becoming a foundational component of delivering mobile applications at scale. Last year, Telerik rolled out a new version of its Icenium product that lets developers build mobile apps, mobile websites and hybrid apps for any platform and any device without having to use specific proprietary SDKs or software packages.