ISA Server

Gartner says that the Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) market will top $1 Billion by the end of 2010 and that more than 95% of organizations will choose MEAP instead of point solutions through 2012. The big takeaway here is that companies have been building tactical mobile application silos that support only one application and now they want to save money by going with a reusable platform capable of supporting multiple applications. Oh and along the way it needs to support multiple device and OS platforms while providing security, device management, and a single IDE to build apps and logic to integrate with back end systems.

Gartner has a “rule of three” that states that a MEAP offers significant advantages in three situations:

When there are 3 or more mobile applications
When there are 3 or more targeted operating systems or platforms
When they involve the integration of 3 or more back-end systems

Leaders in this space have included Sybase iAnywhere, Antenna, Dexterra, Syclo and Spring Wireless. Microsoft goes from a large Mobile General Store with myriad solutions to a player in this space with a MEAP solution of our own: Microsoft Mobile Enterprise Application Platform Visual Studio is used to build the mobile logic and UI. Merge Replication provides occasionally-connected data synchronization between SQL Server Compact on the mobile device and SQL Server in the data center. SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio is used to visually create connections to back-end systems like SAP or databases like Oracle. Data in transit is secured via SSL or VPN, data at rest is encrypted via device encryption, SQL Server Compact, BitLocker or programmatically through the Crypto API. Integration packages that communicate with back-end systems are encrypted and digitally signed.

We already have the best mobile email, calendaring, and contacts product in the business where Exchange Active Sync keeps Outlook and Outlook Mobile always up to date with Exchange Server. Server-to-device as well as peer-to-peer device notifications are facilitated through WCF Store and Forward on Exchange. Software and patch distribution along with device settings and policy management is accompished via System Center Configuration Manager. ISA Server provides both VPN and Reverse Proxy access to roaming applications on the Internet on any platform.

When you put this stack in place and resuse it for multiple mobile applications instead of going with point solutions, ROI savings increase as the need for POCs, Pilots and training are reduced and the need for extra client access licenses is eliminated. That’s Gartner’s first requirement. We hit Gartner’s second requirement by uniformly supporting 3 mobile operating systems in the form of Windows, Windows CE, and Windows Mobile. Last but not least, our SQL Server Integration Services technology combined with dozens of connectors mean we can connect your mobile devices with almost any back-end package or database.

Yes, Microsoft does have a Mobile Enterprise Application Platform that’s already proven to scale to tens of thousands of devices and it will definitely save you time and money.

- Rob

I’m happy to say that my latest book is now available on Amazon.

With the world’s largest organizations rolling out tens of thousands of Windows® phones, laptops, tablets and Netbooks to empower their respective mobile workforces, the ability to create mobile line of business solutions that support large numbers of users is absolutely critical. In my fourth book on mobile infrastructure and development, I show you how to take the SQL Server data you use to run your organization and make it available to all of your mobile employees.

Step-by-step, I’ll walk you through the process of building a secure, performant, n-tier, mobile enterprise application platform architecture designed to scale to thousands of users. You’ll also learn how to create occasionally-connected .NET applications designed to thrive in unreliable wireless conditions.

Learn how to “Mobilize” your organization by making your enterprise data available to employees carrying Windows® phones, laptops, Netbooks and tablets in the field.
Learn how to build an N-Tier Mobile Sync infrastructure that will scale to thousands of users.
Learn how to create occasionally-connected .NET applications designed to thrive in unreliable wireless conditions.
Learn best practices in security, reliability, performance, load-balancing, reverse proxy and hardware configuration.
Learn how to implement this technology in real world scenarios like supply chain management, retail, sales force automation, healthcare and emergency management.

Keep in mind that the knowledge you gain from this book didn’t come from me dreaming this stuff up in an Ivory Tower. It came from building some of the worlds largest and most complex data synchronization systems for the world’s largest companies. In addition to the hands-on experience that went into this book, I’d also like to thank some of my colleagues for their invaluable contributions:

Liam Cavanagh is a Senior Lead Program Manager for Microsoft’s Sync Framework and Cloud Data Services and he wrote the forward.
Catherine Wyatt is the Managing Editor for Hood Canal Press who made the publishing of the book possible.
Darren Shaffer is the CEO of Handheld Logic and he wrote the Chapter on building the Mobile Subscriber.
Michael Jimenez is a Mobility Architect at Microsoft and he wrote the Appendix that shows you how to create an ISA Server 2006 Reverse Proxy to publish your sync infrastructure to the Internet.

It’s my sincere hope that this book will encourage you to un-tether your workforce from their desktop computers and boost your organization’s agility by pushing out critical business functions to the point of activity where employees are empowered to make timely decisions and perform tasks that best serve the interests of their customers and their company.

This repudiation of the traditional “connected” software application model increases customer satisfaction, boosts worker efficiency, reduces “missed opportunities” and results in cost savings as “un-wired” employees get their jobs done wherever they happen to be.

Best Regards,

Rob