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“It’s so unfortunate to miss a $30 million raised startup in the battlefield #messaging platforms.”
Layer, a $30 million raised messaging platform is almost about to encounter the crisis due to the insufficient tech team to manage the entire chat platform. It’s unfortunate for all the messaging platform providers in the market that a well-positioned company is about to shut down all its services and cease all the chat operations(LayerEngage & LayerCreate) from October 30, 2019.
For your context, the messaging platform, Layer’s API has won TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield back in 2013 and acquired a startup Cola – a text messaging app.
The Layer company Head, Shaun VanWeelden announced Layer API shut down over a mail on 25th July 2019 to his customers noting that they are ceasing all the messaging operations due to several numbers of critical issues.
Here’s the entire context of the mail from Shaun, Head of the Layer;
We are Sunsetting the Layer Platform
We will be sunsetting the Layer Platform and API on October 30th, 2019.
The platform, features, and functionality of our service will continue with no change from what it is today until that date, including access to export your data.
After October 30th, 2019, the Layer Platform and all services associated with Layer will be shut down in their entirety.
Our priorities are to maintain system uptime and ensure you are able to move off the platform as seamlessly as possible. No features or updates to our SDKs will be published and bugs not related to service uptime or core functionality may not be resolved.
There will be no part of Layer online past this date and no option to continue leveraging the Layer backend services. Similarly, there is no way to take the Layer backend service and self-host it or for us to provide it to you.
Why are we sunsetting the Layer Platform?
1) We do not have a team in place to properly diagnose and resolve the volume of bugs and issues that are arising from our customer base.
2) We do not have a team in place to keep our SDKs up to date, the reality is that critical bugs and failures that we can not resolve are inevitable, sooner or later.
3) While the security built into the Layer platform and organization very much persists, we do not have the team in place to adequately assist you in completing vendor audits or providing verifications as needed.
4) Our key hire running all server operations and infrastructure passed away suddenly and unexpectedly very recently. While we have plans to get additional help there for the remainder of the Layer service, we do not have a sustainable path to ensure system uptime and reliability long term.
5) Barring all of the above, Layer infrastructure costs are both very high and very fixed. We are currently operating the Layer platform at an unsustainable loss.
Closing things Out
On the business side, we definitely messed up and have learned a lot in the process. I know this likely puts you in an extremely tough position and I apologize that I did not have better news to share with you.
I also recognize the timeline is very tight, but it is that way for our mutual safety. What I would not want to happen is that I say we can continue to support you for 6 months and then 4 months from now, we have a critical outage that we can just not resolve with our team. That would put us both in a much, much worse position.
If I can assist in recommending a competitive service, please let me know the use-cases that are most relevant for you.
Thank you,
Shaun VanWeelden,
Head of Layer.
Certainly, this happens to create a big storm to the current customers of Layer. The customer had to face a serious disruption in their business. The Layer chat has given a very short period(3 months) to migrate off from Layer to another chat platform provider.
This seems to be so awful that migrating your entire chat platform one to another is so complex and expensive.
The Last Chance for All the Layer Customers
Being as the most sought after SaaP (Software as a Product) solution provider in the market, MirrorFly utterly trying to favor ALL THE LAYER CUSTOMERS to uplift their communication business much easier and reliable.
MirrorFly’ dev team is seriously working on some tactical improvements in SDKs and APIs to migrate entire Chat from Layer to MirrorFly without any DOWN-TIME, DATA-LOSS & COMPLEX INTEGRATIONS.
Some Logical Reasons Why To Migrate From Layer to MirrorFly?
- Dependency on third-party servers, Cloud and Backend admin is no more a burden. (Experience flexible deployments On cloud or on-premises)
- We have 300+ in-house dev team to upgrade, build and enhance your SDKs. (In case of insufficient client team).
- On top of everything, the SDK is completely customizable. Moreover, it’s a solution, not a SaaS messaging platform. (Your own source code)
- Security is built with End-to-end encryption, AES encryption, and three-way authentications.
- Whatever the platform, we are ready with it – Android, iOS, React, React Native and Web.
Also Read: Angular Vs React: Which One is Best for your App?
- It’s completely a one-time payment with unlimited user-base (Free from monthly subscription burdens)
- The Concurrent user base has never been an issue with MirrorFly. (Supports 1+ million users)
It’s quite understandable that you’ve been working with Layer for a while, but it’s time for a new feature-enriched opportunity to make the messaging platform all yours. Everything right from messaging infrastructure to SDK, Dev team to migrate the messaging platform, MirrorFly has the ideal technology, team to migrate your messaging platform.
What is the ultimate feature you have to compare that Layer?
No more investment for any specific feature, functionality or user count. Get unlimited on everything right from making video & voice calls with a one-time payment.
What is the user count & scalability?
Whatever the user limit you had with Layer platform, MirrorFly never had any issue with user count. (Connect users globally 1+ million users)
Can I use the same UI? or mirrorfly can give a new design & database?
Run your overall operation in the same application with upgrades in features, design, and performance.
Step by step process Migrate Off from Layer to Mirrorfly?
There are four major changes should deal with,
Database setup
Layout Transfer
Custom-Built Functionality
Data integrity