Facebook moves to shut down its Parse developer platform

Facebook's Parse developer platform is shutting down because, according to a blog post published by Parse co-founder Kevin Lacker, "we need to focus our resources elsewhere."

This is potentially bad news for developers using Parse, which (until this week) offered a suite of mobile-focused remote server services that devs could use to, say, manage cloud saves in their mobile game or push notifications to players' devices.

Facebook acquired the company in 2013, and at last year's F8 developer conference laid out plans to make Parse more useful to developers working with embedded systems -- think "Internet of things" tech like Internet-connected fridges and thermostats.

As part of the shutdown, the company has released an open-source Parse server a database migration tool to help developers rescue their Parse apps and potentially maintain them as Parse itself winds down, with a firm shutdown date of January 28, 2017.