Resources Worklight as a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform
When evaluating a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform it is important to understand the current technology trends and their impact on companies' mobile strategies.
A recent study by IDC predicts that by the end of 2013, the total number of mobile workers will grow to nearly 1.2 billion people, representing more than a third of the world’s workforce. Facing such rapid adoption of smartphones and tablets, companies are compelled to quickly integrate these devices into their operations and support their workers with direct, secure access to the data and services they require on the go.
 
A Mobile Enterprise Application Platform, or MEAP, provides a set of tools and mechanisms that allow large organizations to develop, run and manage multiple mobile applications from a single solution stack. The MEAP consists of a development environment, an integration layer and a management component that together support the secure channeling of data and IT resources to the hands of frontline employees on a variety of mobile environments.
The Worklight Mobile Platform was specifically designed as an ideal MEAP solution. Integrating a robust IDE, server and administration console into one solution, the platform enables the creation, running and management of internal-facing applications that adhere to the goals, business processes and security requirements of the organization.
Development
As mobile devices continue to take a central role in our daily activities, a growing portion of the modern workforce is expecting employers to integrate smartphones and tablets into the IT infrastructure. Some even bring their personal devices to work and expect the organization to support the features and capabilities these devices have to offer. To capitalize on this trend, companies must find ways to quickly and securely channel their back-end services to this growing mix of mobile devices, each requiring a unique set of skills and development tools to master.
Using Worklight, developers are able to quickly build rich, multiplatform applications for a variety of mobile operating systems using a single shared codebase that can be easily optimized to the unique features and capabilities of each device. As opposed to other pre-packaged solutions, The Worklight Studio – the platform’s IDE – allows developers to build their own apps using pure native code, web languages or a combination of both. As a result, using Worklight, applications can be easily built to address the unique needs of the organization, no matter how innovative, allowing the knowledge workers to access the services they require using devices they are familiar with.
Integration
A secure and scalable connection to back-end systems is key, but not without challenges. Companies embarking on a mobile strategy must adhere to existing security protocols and regulations, but also address the new threats and vulnerabilities that are presented by modern mobile environments.
Worklight’s integration framework is based on the simple configuration of XML-based adapters. Integration adapters can be customized to connect to any type of back-end system and data source in a secure and scalable manner, allowing the organization to quickly mobilize any of its lines of business.
Worklight has been deployed, field-tested and proven to address the high security standards of some of the largest organizations around the world. The system provides multiple mechanisms and tools that support the creation and ongoing control of secure applications. Among others, Worklight delivers secure application provisioning, user authentication, access authorization, encrypted server/client communication and secure offline access that includes on-device encryption and offline authentication.
Management
A recent study reveals that in the next year the majority of organizations will deploy up to 10 different mobile applications. As apps become a key part of the IT infrastructure, the ability to monitor and control this medium on ongoing basis is quickly becoming a high priority for many companies.
Worklight provides several mechanisms to address this need. By decoupling the integration layer from the application code, administrators can easily apply periodical updates to back-end systems that are shared among multiple apps, without requiring the independent update of each application. Furthermore, when updates are available for the application itself (client-side code), the platform will identify the app or device version based on preset rules, block its access to the server and force the user to initiate the update process. This way, the organization can maintain data integrity and enforce critical security updates when relevant. In other supported scenarios, developers can create applications that are updated automatically from the Worklight Server, circumventing the submission and approval process of the different app stores.
The Worklight Console also consists of an administrative dashboard that monitors the entire portfolio of deployed applications, adapters and push notification, allowing the organization to constantly ensure their active status and proper performance. Using the Worklight platform as a mobile enterprise application platform allows companies to harness these and other key capabilities.
 
Learn more about Worklight as a Mobile Consumer Application Platform.