Mobile Enterprise Application Platform

All posts tagged Mobile Enterprise Application Platform

Consumerization of IT Collides with MEAP: Android > Cloud

Posted by Rob Tiffany on November 2, 2011
Posted in: MEAP. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

In my ‘Consumerization of IT Collides with MEAP’ article last week, I described how to connect Android smartphones and tablets to Microsoft’s On-Premise infrastructure. In this week’s scenario, I’ll use the picture below to illustrate how Android utilizes many of Gartner’s Mobile Enterprise Application Platform Critical Capabilities to connect to Microsoft’s Cloud services in Azure:

image

As you can see from the picture above:

  1. For the Management Tools Critical Capability, there is no Cloud-based device management solution, policy-enforcement, or software distribution solution from Microsoft for Android. As I mentioned in last week’s post, consumer software distribution comes from the Android Market and the enterprise equivalent is facilitated via internal web servers and user-clickable URLs. Since Android is a wide-open system, competing markets and app stores are on the rise from Amazon and others.
  2. For both the Client and Server Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Multichannel Tool Critical Capability, Android uses Visual Studio. Endpoint development consists of HTML5, ECMAScript 5, and CSS3 delivered by ASP.NET via Web Roles. WCF REST + JSON Web services can also be created and consumed via Ajax calls from the browser. On the Cloud side of things, the Windows Azure SDK plugs into Visual Studio and provides Android developers with everything they need to build Cloud applications. It includes a Cloud emulator to simulate all aspects of Windows Azure and AppFabric on their development computer. In scenarios where native development is required by the customers, the Windows Azure Toolkit for Android can be used to allow Java via Eclipse to securely communicate with the Microsoft cloud.
  3. For the cross-platform Application Client Runtime Critical Capability, Android uses the WebKit browser called Chrome to provide HTML5 + CSS3 + ECMAScript5 capabilities. Offline storage is important to keep potentially disconnected Android smartphones and tablets working and this is facilitated by Web Storage which is accessible via JavaScript.
  4. For the Security Critical Capability, Android 3.0 and higher provides hardware encryption based on the user’s device passcode for data-at-rest. Data-in-transit is secured via SSL and VPN. LDAP API support allows it to access corporate directory services. Auth in the Microsoft cloud is handled via the Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control Service (ACS).
  5. For the Enterprise Application Integration Tools Critical Capability, Android can reach out to servers directly via Web Services or indirectly through the Cloud via the Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus to connect to other enterprise packages.
  6. The Multichannel Server Critical Capability to support any open protocol is handled automatically by Windows Azure. Cross-Platform wire protocols riding on top of HTTP are exposed by Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and include SOAP, REST and Atompub. Cross-Platform data serialization is also provided by WCF including XML, JSON, and OData. These Multichannel capabilities support thick clients making web service calls as well as thin web clients making Ajax calls. Distributed caching to dramatically boost the performance of any client is provided by Windows Azure AppFabric Caching.
  7. As you might imagine, the Hosting Critical Capability is handled by Windows Azure. Beyond providing the most complete solution of any Cloud provider, Windows Azure Connect provides an IPSec-protected connection with your On-Premises network and SQL Azure Data Sync can be used to move data between SQL Server and SQL Azure. This gives you the Hybrid Cloud solution you might be looking for.
  8. For the Packaged Mobile Apps or Components Critical Capability, Android runs cross-platform mobile apps including Skype, Bing, MSN, Tag, Hotmail, and of course the critical ActiveSync component that makes push emails, contacts, calendars, and device management policies possible.

Samsung-Galaxy-Nexus-UK

While Android 3.0 and higher meets many of Gartner’s Critical Capabilities, it doesn’t fare very well when it comes to cloud-based device management.  While other mobile device platforms also come up short in this department, I’m sure this will change in the coming year.  The tidal wave of CoIT means that device management in the future will look very different from how it did 5 years ago.  Expect a clear separation between corporate apps/data and personal apps/data to be managed.

Best Regards,

Rob

Consumerization of IT Collides with MEAP: Android > On-Premises

Posted by Rob Tiffany on October 24, 2011
Posted in: MEAP. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

In my last ‘Consumerization of IT Collides with MEAP’ article, I described how to connect iPhones and iPads to Microsoft’s Cloud servers in Azure. In this week’s scenario, I’ll use the picture below to illustrate how Android devices can utilize many of Gartner’s Critical Capabilities to connect to Microsoft’s On-Premise infrastructure:

image

As you can see from the picture above:

  1. For the Management Tools Critical Capability, Android uses Microsoft Exchange for On-Premise policy enforcement via Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) but has no private software distribution equivalent to System Center Configuration Manager 2007 from Microsoft today. Instead, in-house apps are hosted and APKs distributed via a web server over wireless by having a user click on a URL or through a variety of app stores. In the future, System Center Configuration Manager 2012 will be able to better manage Android devices.
  2. For both the Client and Server Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Multichannel Tool Critical Capability, Android uses Visual Studio. While the Server/EAI development functionality is the same as every other platform, endpoint development will consist of HTML5, ECMAScript 5, and CSS3 delivered by ASP.NET. WCF REST + JSON Web services can also be created and consumed via Ajax calls from the browser.
  3. For the cross-platform Application Client Runtime Critical Capability, we will rely on Android’s WebKit browser to provide HTML5 + CSS3 + ECMAScript5 capabilities. Offline storage is important to keep potentially disconnected Android working and this is facilitated by Web Storage which is accessible via JavaScript.
  4. For the Security Critical Capability, Android 3.0 and higher provides hardware encryption based on the user’s device passcode for data-at-rest. Data-in-transit is secured via SSL and VPN. LDAP API support allows it to access corporate directory services.
  5. For the Enterprise Application Integration Tools Critical Capability, Android can reach out to servers directly via Web Services or indirectly via SQL Server (JDBC) or BizTalk using SSIS/Adapters to connect to other enterprise packages.
  6. The Multichannel Server Critical Capability to support any open protocol directly, via Reverse Proxy, or VPN is facilitated by ISA/TMG/UAG/IIS. Cross-Platform wire protocols riding on top of HTTP are exposed by Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and include SOAP, REST and Atompub. Cross-Platform data serialization is also provided by WCF including XML, JSON, and OData. These Multichannel capabilities support thick clients making web service calls as well as thin web clients making Ajax calls. Distributed caching to dramatically boost the performance of any client is provided by Windows Server AppFabric Caching.
  7. While the Hosting Critical Capability may not be as relevant in an on-premises scenario, Windows Azure Connect provides an IPSec-protected connection to the Cloud and SQL Azure Data Sync can be used to move data between SQL Server and SQL Azure.
  8. For the Packaged Mobile Apps or Components Critical Capability, Android runs cross-platform mobile apps including Skype, Bing, MSN, Tag, Hotmail, and of course the critical ActiveSync component that makes push emails, contacts, calendars, and device management policies possible.

Newer versions of Android (3.x/4.0) are beginning to meet more of Gartner’s Critical Capabilities. It’s really improved in the last year in areas of encryption, but device fragmentation makes this improvement uneven.  The app story is still the ‘Wild West’ since the Android Market is an un-vetted free-for-all. This big ‘red flag’ has given rise to curated app stores like the one from Amazon.  As you can see from the picture, the big gap is with the client application runtime critical capability. Native development via Java/Eclipse is where Google wants to steer you and Microsoft doesn’t make native tools, runtimes or languages for this platform. You can definitely perform your own due diligence on Mono for Android from our friend Miguel de Icaza and his colleagues in order to reuse your existing .NET and C# skills. From a Microsoft perspective though, you’re definitely looking at HTML5 delivered via ASP.NET.

Next week, I’ll cover how Android connects to the Cloud.

Best Regards,

Rob

Consumerization of IT Collides with MEAP: iPhone + iPad > Cloud

Posted by Rob Tiffany on October 17, 2011
Posted in: MEAP. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 1 comment

In my ‘Consumerization of IT Collides with MEAP’ article last week, I described how to connect iPhones and iPads to Microsoft’s On-Premise infrastructure. In this week’s scenario, I’ll use the picture below to illustrate how iOS utilizes many of Gartner’s Mobile Enterprise Application Platform Critical Capabilities to connect to Microsoft’s Cloud services in Azure:

image

As you can see from the picture above:

  1. For the Management Tools Critical Capability, there is no Cloud-based device management solution, policy-enforcement, or software distribution solution from Microsoft for iOS.  As I mentioned in last week’s post, consumer software distribution comes from the App Store and the enterprise equivalent is facilitated via internal web servers and user-clickable URLs.
  2. For both the Client and Server Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Multichannel Tool Critical Capability, iOS uses Visual Studio.  Endpoint development consists of HTML5, ECMAScript 5, and CSS3 delivered by ASP.NET via Web Roles.  WCF REST + JSON Web services can also be created and consumed via Ajax calls from the browser.  On the Cloud side of things, the Windows Azure SDK plugs into Visual Studio and provides iOS developers with everything they need to build Cloud applications. It includes a Cloud emulator to simulate all aspects of Windows Azure and AppFabric on their development computer. In scenarios where native development is required by the customers, the Windows Azure Toolkit for iOS can be used to allow XCode/Objective-C to securely communicate with the Microsoft cloud.
  3. For the cross-platform Application Client Runtime Critical Capability, iOS uses the WebKit browser called Safari to provide HTML5 + CSS3 + ECMAScript5 capabilities. Offline storage is important to keep potentially disconnected iPhones and iPads working and this is facilitated by Web Storage which is accessible via JavaScript.
  4. For the Security Critical Capability, iOS provides AES 256 hardware encryption as well as Data Protection based on the user’s device passcode for data-at-rest. Data-in-transit is secured via SSL, VPN, and 802.1X.  Auth in the Microsoft cloud is handled via the Windows Azure AppFabric Access Control Service (ACS).
  5. For the Enterprise Application Integration Tools Critical Capability, iOS can reach out to servers directly via Web Services or indirectly through the Cloud via the Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus to connect to other enterprise packages.
  6. The Multichannel Server Critical Capability to support any open protocol is handled automatically by Windows Azure. Cross-Platform wire protocols riding on top of HTTP are exposed by Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and include SOAP, REST and Atompub. Cross-Platform data serialization is also provided by WCF including XML, JSON, and OData. These Multichannel capabilities support thick clients making web service calls as well as thin web clients making Ajax calls. Distributed caching to dramatically boost the performance of any client is provided by Windows Azure AppFabric Caching.
  7. As you might imagine, the Hosting Critical Capability is handled by Windows Azure. Beyond providing the most complete solution of any Cloud provider, Windows Azure Connect provides an IPSec-protected connection with your On-Premises network and SQL Azure Data Sync can be used to move data between SQL Server and SQL Azure. This gives you the Hybrid Cloud solution you might be looking for.
  8. For the Packaged Mobile Apps or Components Critical Capability, iOS runs cross-platform mobile apps including OneNote, Bing, Tag, and of course the critical ActiveSync component that makes push emails, contacts, calendars, and device management policies possible.

While iOS meets many of Gartner’s Critical Capabilities, it doesn’t fare very well when it comes to cloud-based device management.  That being said, this is not a strong area for many mobile endpoints at this stage of the game.

Next week, I’ll cover how Android connects to an On-Premises Microsoft infrastructure.

Best Regards,

Rob

Consumerization of IT Collides with MEAP: iPhone + iPad > On-Premises

Posted by Rob Tiffany on October 10, 2011
Posted in: MEAP. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 2 comments

In my last ‘Consumerization of IT Collides with MEAP’ article, I described how to connect a Windows Phone device to Microsoft’s Cloud servers in Azure.  By now you’re probably thinking, “It’s easy to talk about Microsoft endpoints talking to Microsoft servers.” So in this week’s scenario, I’ll use the picture below to illustrate how iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad can utilize many of Gartner’s Critical Capabilities to connect to Microsoft’s On-Premise infrastructure:

image

As you can see from the picture above:

  1. For the Management Tools Critical Capability, iOS uses Microsoft Exchange for On-Premise policy enforcement via Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) but has no private software distribution equivalent to System Center Configuration Manager 2007 from Microsoft today. Instead, in-house apps are hosted and distributed via a web server over wireless by having a user click on a URL.  In the future, System Center Configuration Manager 2012 will be able to better manage iOS devices.
  2. For both the Client and Server Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Multichannel Tool Critical Capability, iOS uses Visual Studio. While the Server/EAI development functionality is the same as every other platform, endpoint development will consist of HTML5, ECMAScript 5, and CSS3 delivered by ASP.NET.  WCF REST + JSON Web services can also be created and consumed via Ajax calls from the browser.
  3. For the cross-platform Application Client Runtime Critical Capability, we will rely on iOS’s WebKit browser called Safari to provide HTML5 + CSS3 + ECMAScript5 capabilities. Offline storage is important to keep potentially disconnected iPhones and iPads working and this is facilitated by Web Storage which is accessible via JavaScript.
  4. For the Security Critical Capability, iOS provides AES 256 hardware encryption as well as Data Protection based on the user’s device passcode for data-at-rest. Data-in-transit is secured via SSL, VPN, and 802.1X.  Built-in LDAP support allows it to access corporate directory services.
  5. For the Enterprise Application Integration Tools Critical Capability, iOS can reach out to servers directly via Web Services or indirectly via SQL Server or BizTalk using SSIS/Adapters to connect to other enterprise packages.
  6. The Multichannel Server Critical Capability to support any open protocol directly, via Reverse Proxy, or VPN is facilitated by ISA/TMG/UAG/IIS. Crosss-Platform wire protocols riding on top of HTTP are exposed by Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and include SOAP, REST and Atompub. Cross-Platform data serialization is also provided by WCF including XML, JSON, and OData. These Multichannel capabilities support thick clients making web service calls as well as thin web clients making Ajax calls. Distributed caching to dramatically boost the performance of any client is provided by Windows Server AppFabric Caching.
  7. While the Hosting Critical Capability may not be as relevant in an on-premises scenario, Windows Azure Connect provides an IPSec-protected connection to the Cloud and SQL Azure Data Sync can be used to move data between SQL Server and SQL Azure.
  8. For the Packaged Mobile Apps or Components Critical Capability, iOS runs cross-platform mobile apps including OneNote, Bing, Tag, and of course the critical ActiveSync component that makes push emails, contacts, calendars, and device management policies possible.

As you can see, iOS meets many of Gartner’s Critical Capabilities.  It’s really improved over the years in areas of security and device management.  As you can see from the picture, the big gap is with the client application runtime critical capability.  Native development via Xcode/Objective-C is where Apple wants to steer you and Microsoft doesn’t make native tools, runtimes or languages for this platform.  You can certainly kick the tires and perform your own due diligence on MonoTouch from our friend Miguel de Icaza and his colleagues in order to reuse your existing .NET and C# skills.  From a Microsoft perspective though, you’re definitely looking at HTML5 delivered via ASP.NET.

Next week, I’ll cover how iOS connects to the Cloud.

Best Regards,

Rob

Sync Framework v4 is now Open Source, and ready to Connect any Device to SQL Server and SQL Azure

Posted by Rob Tiffany on September 11, 2011
Posted in: Sync Framework. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . 10 comments

The profound effects of the Consumerization of IT (CoIT) is blurring the lines between consumers and the enterprise.  The fact that virtually every type of mobile device is now a candidate to make employees productive means that cross-platform, enabling technologies are a must.  Luckily, Microsoft has brought the power to synchronize data with either SQL Server on-premise or SQL Azure in the cloud to the world of mobility.  If you’ve ever synched the music on your iPhone with iTunes, the calendar on your Android device with Gmail, or the Outlook email on your Windows Phone with Exchange, then you understand the importance of sync.  In my experience architecting and building enterprise mobile apps for the world’s largest organizations over the last decade, data sync has always been a critical ingredient.

The new Sync Framework Toolkit found on MSDN builds on the existing Sync Framework 2.1′s ability to create disconnected applications, making it easier to expose data for synchronization to apps running on any client platform.  Where Sync Framework 2.1 required clients to be based on Windows, this free toolkit allows other Microsoft platforms to be used for offline clients such as Silverlight, Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile, Windows Embedded Handheld, and new Windows Slates.   Additionally, non-Microsoft platforms such as iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets, Blackberries and browsers supporting HTML5 are all first-class sync citizens.  The secret is that we no longer require the installation of the Sync Framework runtime on client devices.  When coupled with use of an open protocol like OData for data transport, no platform or programming language is prevented from synchronizing data with our on-premise and cloud databases.  When the data arrives on your device, you can serialize it as JSON, or insert it into SQL Server Compact or SQLite depending on your platform preferences.

The Sync Framework Toolkit provides all the features enabled by theSync Framework 4.0 October 2010 CTP.  We are releasing the toolkit as source code samples on MSDN with the source code utilizing Sync Framework 2.1.  Source code provides the flexibility to customize or extend the capabilities we have provided to suit your specific requirements. The client-side source code in the package is released under the Apache 2.0 license and the server-side source code under the MS-LPL license.  The Sync Framework 2.1 is fully supported by Microsoft and the mobile-enabling source code is yours to use, build upon, and support for the apps you create.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now some of you might be wondering why you would use a sync technology to move data rather than SOAP or REST web services.  The reason has to do with performance and bandwidth efficiency.  Using SOA, one would retrieve all the data needed to the device in order to see what has changed in SQL Server.  The same goes for uploading data.  Using the Sync Framework Toolkit, only the changes, or deltas, are transmitted over the air.  The boosts performance and reduces bandwidth usage which saves time and money in a world of congested mobile data networks with capped mobile data plans.  You also get a feature called batching, which breaks up the data sent over wireless networks into manageable pieces.  This not only prevents you from blowing out your limited bandwidth, but it also keeps you from using too much RAM memory both on the server and your memory-constrained mobile device.  When combined with conflict resolution and advanced filtering, I’m sold!

I think you’ll find the Sync Framework Toolkit to be an immensely valuable component of your MEAP solutions for the enterprise as well as the ones you build for consumers.

Keep Synching,

Rob