Strategic Technology: Mobile Application Platform (IBM Worklight)

A Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP) such as IBM Worklight provides the ability to write once and deploy anywhere.

IBM Worklight builds upon open source Apache Cordova (a.k.a. PhoneGap).

A MEAP provides tooling to develop mobile Web, hybrid mobile and native mobile applications.  The IBM tooling for Worklight is named IBM Worklight Studio.  Common code can be shared across applications of different types and targeted toward different devices.  Support is provided for synchronization of data.  Secure the application at the device, application and network layers, and govern the app portfolio.

Developers will need to integrate mobile application development tools with Web application development tools and lightweight Web development tools to provide multichannel systems of engagement.

A MEAP provides or depends upon mobile device/application management and mobile application security technologies.

• Mobile Application Management (MAM) enables deployment of applications through an enterprise app store, keeping them up-to-date on mobile devices, monitoring performance, and performing reporting, tracking and access control.  MAM is supported by IBM Endpoint Manager for Mobile Devices.
• Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) enables tracking different versions of apps and improve them efficiently.

MQ messaging can be extended to mobile devices using IBM MessageSight.

Mobile app testing can be automated using IBM Rational Test Workbench.