Saturday, April 5, 2025

ElectricSQL: Mobile App Data Offline Without Cloud Storage

ElectricSQL Provides Immediate Access to Mobile Data Without Using Cloud Storage.

In current mobile app landscape, speed and efficiency are critical to delivering an amazing user experience. However, typical cloud-based and networked database systems can occasionally hinder performance due to slow access times and dependence on reliable internet connections. Next came ElectricSQL, a member of Intel Liftoff, which is revolutionizing the development of mobile applications. Because ElectricSQL stores data locally rather than on the cloud, it is completely changing how apps handle data.

Concerning ElectricSQL

ElectricSQL is a software platform that prioritizes local users. It is employed to create incredibly quick, cooperative, applications that run directly on an open source object-relational database system and are offline PostgreSQL. These applications don’t require access to distant data systems in order to communicate with a local, embedded database.

The Challenge

A database, which is usually not on the end device itself but rather on a network server or in the cloud, is how applications and mobile apps commonly access the necessary data. Sufficient processing power and a dependable network or internet connection are prerequisites for both strategies. At this point, the user wishes the necessary information had been kept in a locally accessible database. The PostgreSQL database system combined with local-first apps/applications satisfies this desire.

PostgreSQL database system
Image Credit To Electric-SQL.com

The Solution

The current app development scene is dominated by cloud-first platforms, but ElectricSQL offers a unique alternative. Conventional cloud-based applications frequently need state transfer protocols like REST, GraphQL, or LiveView in order to manage and sync data over the network. But in order to read and write data, these systems require continuous internet access, and their cloud-centric architecture raises expenses.

Choose a straightforward, scalable replication mechanism to standardize your backend services and lessen their workload and variability.

The local-first methodology of ElectricSQL moves the emphasis from backend servers to a synchronized system. Apps with ElectricSQL support communicate directly with a local database rather than obtaining information from distant servers. This implies that apps can read and write data without requiring the internet in order to operate offline. Its synchronization technology, which makes sure that data synchronizes between the local database and the cloud when network connectivity is available, is where the true magic is.

The following essential characteristics of ElectricSQL help to meet the requirement for dynamic, real-time data synchronisation:

  • Authorisation & Data Access Control: To control access to data, grant permissions, and synchronise data between PostgreSQL in the cloud and SQLite or PGlite in the local application, use row-level DDLX rules.
  • Type-safe, reactive queries that run against data synced onto the local database can be used to bind real-time data to components.
  • Immediate, Conflict-Free Writes: ElectricSQL enables immediate, replicated, and conflict-free writes to local databases by removing the network from the interaction path.

When connectivity is restored, these features allow electric apps to sync data between devices and users and operate instantly, even when offline.

Local-first applications
Image Credit To Intel

The differences in access times and latencies between cloud-based and local-first applications.

Local-first data model
Image Credit To Intel

With ElectricSQL, you can change your conventional cloud-centric data model into a local-first data model that feels like a local data model.

Benefits of ElectricSQL’s Local-First Approach

  • Instant Responsiveness: Because data is stored locally, apps don’t require remote database access, making them feel quick and responsive.
  • Real-Time Data Synchronisation: Apps with many users can maintain data synchronisation between users and devices, guaranteeing that everyone is viewing the most recent information.
  • Apps may work offline, resolving concurrency and connectivity problems and resolving conflicts with CRDTs (Conflict-Free Replicated Data Types).
  • Decreased Cloud Costs: Companies can drastically lower their cloud compute expenses by reducing their dependency on cloud infrastructure.
  • Resilience to Network Outages: Local-first apps improve user experience by operating even in the event of backend or network outages.

The Role of ElectricSQL and Intel Liftoff in AI Innovation

An exciting aspect of the Intel Liftoff program, which supports AI and machine learning businesses in their early stages, is ElectricSQL. This free online program provides mentorship and useful resources to help entrepreneurs grow and innovate. At the Intel AI Summit in London, where the potential of local-first technology to lessen dependency on the cloud and enhance app performance was emphasised, ElectricSQL’s partnership with Intel was even highlighted.

ElectricSQL guarantees that its platform stays at the forefront of AI and machine learning by utilising the Intel Tiber AI Cloud and Intel Gaudi 2 AI accelerator, offering improved speed and scalability for contemporary mobile apps.

Mobile apps can benefit from lightning-fast data access, offline functionality, and significantly lower cloud expenses using ElectricSQL. Local data storage makes programs more dependable and responsive, allowing users and devices to synchronize in real time. ElectricSQL, a proud member of Intel Liftoff, is leading the way in developing more economical and effective mobile applications that don’t depend entirely on the cloud.

Thota nithya
Thota nithya
Thota Nithya has been writing Cloud Computing articles for govindhtech from APR 2023. She was a science graduate. She was an enthusiast of cloud computing.
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