Unfortunately, many apps have relied solely on Parse for much (if not all) of their backend infastructure. While not a prerequisite, you are encouraged to read my Alamofire tutorial which explained in depth some of the technologies we will be interacting with in this tutorial. Note: Before you make this migration on a production app, I encourage you to perform it on a cloned or test app so you can gain insight into the process first hand before performing it on your app.