Middleware- Driven Mobile Applications A motwin White Paper When Launching New Mobile Services, Middleware Offers the Fastest, Most Flexible Development Path for Sophisticated Apps 1
Executive Summary The wide spectrum of mobile devices from smartphones to tablets is rapidly expanding the ways in which businesses interact with their key audiences. The opportunities to offer great value- added services, hence increase customer spending, service levels and employee efficiency are virtually limitless. But these opportunities also create challenges for application development teams, such as how to cost- effectively and quickly create and manage the many applications that interact with customers and employees. Many development approaches can come into play for writing apps to serve each of the major mobile- device operating systems including Apple ios, Android, Microsoft Windows Phone, and RIM BlackBerry. Developers take on the task of accommodating this wide range of devices through the choice of a mobile application development environment. Several types are available, each with their own advantages and disadvantages depending on the scope of the applications themselves. It is critical for application builders, engineering managers, line- of- business managers, and digital marketing departments to choose the environment that gives developers the best chance to achieve success. This may be easier said than done. Creating and updating applications that provide services to mobile customers and employees often places the development team under a lot of pressure to write code as quickly as possible. The operations side of the business is often anxious to start delivering new or improved services so customers can easily conduct business via their mobile devices. Operations may also have urgent needs for mobile employees to interact with company applications more efficiently. Time then becomes a critical constraint for developers. This white paper examines the options for mobile application development environments and how mobile middleware provides a viable option for streamlining the development process. The paper also describes a mobile middleware solution offered by motwin that provides unique functionality, allowing enterprises to efficiently extend their business processes to the mobile channel. motwin technology enables developers to build critical applications where consumers cannot only view information but also conduct transactions such as purchasing goods and services, making reservations, and performing stock trades, among others. 2
Mobile Application Development Environment Options Development teams can choose to write mobile application code in one of many environments. When considering multi- device, multi- channel development solutions, here s a rundown of the leading environments: Native Application Development HTML5 and JavaScript UI Frameworks Mobile Middleware It is sometimes feasible to rely on a hybrid of multiple environments. Native Application Development: This environment requires writing a specific application for each mobile- device operating system. Although the approach often provides the best end- user experiences, native application development is also fragmented among the four major mobile platforms (ios, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry) since each operating system uses a different code base. Research has indicated that enterprise development shops that write distinct native apps for each platform typically have to budget anywhere from 150 to 200 percent higher than what might be reasonably expected. Other challenges that this development approach faces include the lack of advanced real- time features and poor reliability when mobile carrier connection bars go down. HTML5 and JavaScript: With HTML5 and JavaScript, which are typically used in conjunction with each other, developers can quickly and easily create mobile applications that are accessible from any browser. HTML5 has also evolved for audio and video, and device- access APIs have dramatically increased the capability of Web apps using this approach. However, the JavaScript performance may not be as fast as customers and employees require. The user experience is often less than desired, and formatting apps for various smartphone and tablet screen sizes remains complicated. UI Frameworks: With this environment, apps can be written once and deployed to multiple mobile platforms, and the approach also features a relatively low time- to- market time frame along with low start- up and trial costs. However, this approach also requires mobile app developers to learn new skills, and they usually have to learn a new language and/or toolkit. UI frameworks also limit the extent that mobile apps can be integrated with back- end applications. Enterprise- level deployments can thus be expensive. 3
Mobile Middleware: With middleware environments, mobile applications are developed with two tiers: The presentation logic that resides on the mobile device The business logic that runs on a remote server and integrates with existing back- end systems These development environments usually offer tools to develop both server- side components and mobile applications. SDKs for different mobile platforms facilitate the communication with server- side components. Apps can leverage third- party tools to develop the UI and the navigation since mobile middleware tends to focus on integrating with existing back- end systems and provides logic to serve relevant information to end- users. Mobile App Development Environment Comparison Matrix Features Native App (client) HTML 5 App UI Framework Mobile Middleware Language Native only HTML & JavaScript Proprietary or Native, HTML & JavaScript extension of HTML & JavaScript Code reuse None High High High Access device- High Low Medium High specific functionality Leverage Low High Low High enterprise developer skills Enterprise grade None Low Medium High (High- availability, clustering, etc.) Optimal user High Low Medium High experience Ease of maintenance & evolution Low High Medium High 4
Mobile Middleware Enables Fast Deployment of Sophisticated Features For businesses with multiple back- end servers and multiple mobile applications accessed by a range of mobile- device operation systems the mobile middleware approach provides the most efficient development environment as developers will spend a large part of their time building server- side components which will be common to all mobile applications. Not only middleware significantly reduces the amount of time developers spend coding mobile software but is also particularly helpful for enterprises where developers can write code in Java, a language they are usually familiar with. Additionally, having one central application to communicate with all back- ends simplifies the coding and lowers the complexity of maintaining a solution for new versions of device hardware and software that constantly emerge. Furthermore, IT departments can centralize control of mobile application development to prevent rogue applications, thereby reducing development and maintenance costs and streamlining processes. Middleware also helps bridge the gap between different device form- factors and hardware for capabilities such as geo- location, barcode scanning, and local storage capabilities. The leading mobile middleware platforms help businesses reuse the same back- end logic and businesses process in ways that add greater value for end users while lowering development costs. With a universal connector interface between back- end servers and mobile apps, middleware serves as a gateway by passing requests for content back and forth. On the server side, the middleware offers a unified view of the heterogeneous enterprise data feeds to the mobile applications. On the client side, the middleware optimally handles all connections and the transfer of transaction requests (such as data filtering, compression, and differential transfers). Relying on mobile middleware also speeds up overall application development when creating or updating multiple applications. Instead of writing code for each of the applications to handle the new data- exchange process with the main server, application developers only have to write the code once within the middleware environment. The middleware then automatically applies the necessary changes for user interface configuration so that each application can exchange transactions with the main server. Many development teams have found the middleware unified- API particularly beneficial given the interactions that take place with the wide array of mobile devices and mobile operating systems that customers and employees use. This feature is critical in today s mobile device market. While the ios on Apple devices has been locked down across all mobile carriers, the Android mobile OS uses open source code. This led to a very fragmented market for Android OS mobiles. Interacting with this wide variety thus presents a challenge to developers. But by using middleware, the amount of coding for ensuring new and revised apps interact properly with all mobile devices is reduced considerably. 5
The motwin Middleware Platform Difference To streamline the development and updating of mobile applications, many firms have turned to middleware technology offered by the motwin Platform. motwin helps developer teams build context- aware mobile applications quickly and efficiently. The technology facilitates integration with enterprise services by providing several server- side components that help personalize interactions with mobile users. The platform, which can be administered through a Web portal, also serves as an execution environment for the business logic of mobile applications and includes tools to develop, test, deploy, and run mobile applications. motwin Platform Components motwin Operation Server (MOS) for running server-side apps. Secure Connectors to quickly retrieve data from enterprise and cloud services. Technical Modules that provide shared functionality to motwin apps, such as identity management, messaging and notification. App Management for the administration of apps. Platform Management for the administration of the motwin Platform. SDKs for ios, Android and HTML5 that extend existing tool sets with additional functionalities to connect with mobile operating systems. Key Capabilities Hides connectivity and data management complexity from developers Speeds up application development with reliable performance and secure access Supports multiple mobile platforms Eliminates lag time, down time, and dependency on network conditions with reduced data exchange Provides transparent and persistent off- line storage Increases responsiveness with incremental push- updates Optimizes back- end response time with server and client cache Reduces workload on interconnected back- ends with mobile request mutualization Provides aggregation mechanism for multiple data sources Interconnects seamlessly with standard connectors: HTTP, REST, SOAP, XML and JSON 6
motwin s Unique User- Experience Enhancements The motwin Platform distinguishes itself from alternative middleware platforms by enhancing the way in which businesses interact with customers and employees. This includes the ability to allow users to interact with applications when the connectivity is poor, or temporarily offline. The motwin Platform SDK allows users to access applications with updates from the last connection time and exchanges updates to- and- from the server once devices reconnect without any specific code from the developers. Unified)push)messages) for)targeted) communica6ons) Real%Time) Messaging) motwin'pla+orm' Seamless)Backend) Integra6on) Informa1on' Systems' motwin' App' Always)on )capability)based)) on)patented)implementa6on) Transparent)Data) Synchroniza6on) Figure 1 Personalized)and)context% aware)mobile)applica6ons)) The motwin platform also offers other key end- user interaction capabilities: Notification Manager and motwin Messaging: The unified implementation of notification across mobile operating systems simplifies the communication with mobile users. Non- intrusive in- app notifications improve the overall user experience by allowing real- time interactions with customers. Authentication Manager and User Interface Service: End- users once authenticated can be matched with server- side identities and preferences. This makes it easier to match devices with users as components associate the device IDs with the right authenticated users. User Filtering and Group Capabilities: Developers can define filters composed of both technical and business criteria that can be defined either by navigation flow (the way end- users interact with the app), extracted from the back- end servers (profile information contained in a CRM), or gathered directly from the mobile context sensors. These filters and groups are key to create context- aware applications where personalized information is exchanged in real- time. 7
Fast and Secure Development Leads to Quick- to- Market Applications For development teams that require a platform for rapid development and deployment of context- aware applications, the motwin Platform offers several advantages over other development environments and other middleware solutions. By providing an environment that addresses the many technical challenges encountered during the creation of advanced mobile applications, motwin technology reduces the amount of coding time while enabling mobile device applications and servers to efficiently exchange data as customers and employees interact with back- office systems. motwin also provides business modules that address specific user functionality as well as business accelerators to facilitate customized apps. In addition, the motwin Platform delivers several key benefits that allow developers to create unique and sophisticated mobile applications: Short Time- to- Market: Server- based architecture enables quick development; most custom mobile features are developed server- side and are fully reusable for all mobile implementations, which shortens multi- channel development projects significantly. Quick Integration with Enterprise Services and Back- End Systems: Connectors speed up integration with existing systems while minimizing the overall load to existing services. Secure Mobile Applications: With most of the code for functionality residing server side, any sensitive processing (e.g. one- time password, token validation and decryption) remains hidden from users and potential hackers. Only final information that needs to be presented to the user is sent to the mobile application. Pre- Built Business Modules: Helps developers build mobile applications that focus on personalized interactions by providing pre- built sophisticated building blocks on top of the platform. Mobilized Enterprise Apps: Turn- key connectors/apis enable efficient mobilization while built- in encryption and identity management modules support multiple mobile channels. About motwin motwin is a trusted provider of the industry s only true proactive, context- aware Mobile Application Platform. motwin technology enables enterprises to develop and deploy mobile applications for customers in the fastest time with user- friendly features. The patented motwin platform also provides solutions for all mobile apps native, Web, or hybrid across all channels that provide user context- based, real- time information on resilient networks to enable persistent availability. Many marquis customers across various geographies already use motwin end- to- end solutions, which work out- of- the- box with robust and secure back- end integration, a distributed architecture for development, and turn- key business applications for immediate deployment. motwin is a global company with major locations in Silicon Valley, France and Germany. For further information on how motwin can help your development team efficiently launch and update mobile applications for customers and employees, please visit www.motwin.com. 8