in-house post-pc apps for the enterprise

In-house Post-PC Apps for the Enterprise

Matt Baxter-ReynoldsThe Platform, May 2013

Agenda

• Post-PC in context

• Building solutions

• Delivering solutions

• Q&A

In-house post-PC apps for the enterprise 2

Platforms discussed today

• We’ll be looking at…– iPad– Android tablets– Windows tablets

• Not BlackBerry…– PlayBook is not current OS wave

• Most of what we discuss applies to both smartphone and tablets


Post-PC in context


Post-PC devices

• “Post-PC” devices refers to current generation tablet and smartphone “compute devices”

• Apple’s last reported figures were 19.5 million iPads sold in the last quarter…– That’s 2.5 iPads sold each second– Up from 12 million like for like

• We know people are buying them!– But what are they using them for?


Personal use of post-PC devices

• Smartphones and tablets are “relationship-centric”…– Connects you to the people and things

that are important to you– Based on “ubiquitous computing”

(“ubicomp”) concepts laid down in the 1980s

– Original concepts includes “tabs”, “pads”, and “boards”

– Always around, but in the background– Not about work


Business use of post-PC devices

• Computer systems are about commercial efficiency…– “We can manage our cash flow better if we

have computerised credit control”

• Therein lies the tension…– Post-PC devices don’t really make much

sense against commercial operations• Except for niche, traditional mobility requirements

– The trick is to apply relationship-centric thinking to commercial operations

• B2B – spend profiling• B2C - M&S shopfloor


Typical use of post-PC devices in business

• Classics…– Email– Managing a diary– Web browsing– Document browsing– Navigation (finding meetings)

• Newer ideas…– Skype– Evernote/OneNote


Replacing the PC?

• Depends on the audience…– Common to find that C-level executives can do

it– Specialist jobs can…

• But typically only those in traditional mobility space

– There are likely others

• The intention is never to replace the PC– This is a key part where people get confused– Deliver one tool for commercial efficiency– Deliver another tool for relationship efficiency


What do people mean by the “death of the PC”?

• They mean the PC stops being important to the consumer space...– The consumer “compute device” market

gets bigger compared to enterprise– The enterprise market therefore becomes

niche– …but not necessarily smaller in and of itself

• Thus the PC is not “dying”…– It likely does not find a new life outside of

commercial efficiency


Building solutions


General shape of the problem

• Identify opportunities that are relationship-centric…– Don’t be lulled into thinking of the tablet

as a terminal

• Device types…– Enterprise-supplied– BYOD


Available delivery technologies

• Native code– Developers have to write apps in the toolset that the

vendor prefers they use

• HTML5/Hybrid apps– Developers build a packaged website– PhoneGap, Titanium are classic examples of this

approach

• Shimming– Xamarin is a classic example of this approach– Developers build apps using an abstraction layer

above native code

• Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or Web apps– Treating the tablet as a PC-like console


Native code defined

• iOS– Xcode, Objective-C, Cocoa Touch

• Android– Eclipse, Java, Android SDK

• Windows 8/Windows RT– Windows Store apps– Visual Studio– WinRT and C# – this not .NET– HTML5/JavaScript


Shimming

• Xamarin is the classic example• Principle here is to remove a chunk of the

learning curve...– Still the vendor's API– But a different language and related tooling

• The advantage...– Less time to spin up– More commonality across platform– Close to the platform owner's vision

• The disadvantage– Dependence on a third-party


The Native Windows Wrinkle

• Microsoft’s vision is…– Metro-style (“Modern UI”) aesthetic– Windows Runtime (WinRT) API

• However, if you avoid Windows RT (ARM) devices…– You just have a normal Windows client– Run anything on it as you would

normally do


The choice

• The basic decision is which of those four paths you choose...o Each path comes with different velocity

on initial developmento But, each path comes with

development debto You can blend the approaches to suit

your needs


The additional complexity of cross-platform

• Enterprise hasn’t had to worry about this much

• Cross-platform is about both what you need today, and what you need tomorrow...– So be careful if you only need iPad today

• Very difficult to achieve– There is virtually no crossover between toolsets– Code has to be re-crafted, re-tested multiple

times

• Be wary of "magic bullets"In-house post-PC apps for the enterprise 18

Native code – Pros/Cons

• Proso Closest to the vendor's visiono Best performance, best experience

• Conso Difficult to get up to speedo Creates complex skills requirements


Hybrid apps – Pros/Cons

• Proso Can reuse existing skillso Very fast to get something working

• Conso Almost impossible to build anything

complex


Shimming – Pros/Cons

• Specifically...o Xamarin, as this has the only mature product

in this space

• Proso Can take a lot of enterprise skills over (C#)o Very close to the vendor's original vision of

how the tooling should be

• Conso Could be introducing debt that you don't need


VDI/Web – Pros/Cons

• Pros– Cheap and easy

• Cons– Very poor user experience


The particular problem with hybrid apps

• The perception is that this is a sensible idea...– All of the pieces are in the right place– The reality is that the tooling is horrible...

• Totally out of step with the vendor's vision

• Great feedback initially...– Gives the impression of progress at first– Like running into glue shortly after– Very hard to get across the finish line

• The cross-platform argument is not good enough


Examples of hybrid app problems

• Functionality…– Dependent on the functional set in the

library– Have to write plugins to fill gaps…

• Might as well just write native

• Performance…– Dependent on JavaScript performance– Might be OK on device A, awful on device B– Very little you can do about this


The problem with VDI

• VDI assumes the tablet is a PC…– …which misses the point as the tablet is a

post-PC device– VDI imposes commercial efficiency onto a

device that’s about relationship efficiency– Also problems with the UI

• As a result, you get a tremendously bad user experience

• Use sparingly


Is learning the native toolset

worth the pain?

• The native toolsets gives absolutely the best possible results

• But they are hard to use...o Different/weird

• From first principles people gravitate towards cross-platform...o In the long-term, "going native" might

be best


Blending

• In-house apps you have more control of the audience…– Enterprise supplied iPads, variety of

BYOD smartphones, or…– BYOD policy supports Android and iOS

only, etc.

• Your approach could be to blend…– Target primary platform(s) with native

(or shimmed)– Web or VDI deployment to secondary


Private app delivery

• “Sideloading”– As opposed to “downloading”

• iOS– Special enterprise program– $300 a year

• Android– Turn off device security, install from APK


Private app delivery on Windows

• Windows Store apps– Sideloading enabled as part of volume

licensing– Alternatively, buy a “sideloading key”– Windows RT

• Has to be pushed with Windows Intune

– Windows 8• Pushed with Intune, or PowerShell, etc.

• Windows Phone– Has to be pushed with Windows Intune


Delivering solutions


What does BYOD mean?

• “Bring your own device”– But is that actually what’s happening?

• The reverse is true…– Employees are taking your data to their

device

• Sociologically interesting…– Employee now has data wherever and

“whenever” they are


Work/life balance

• Checking your email when out for dinner with your spouse…– Used to be technically and sociologically

complicated– Now it’s just sociologically complicated

• How can you take advantage of people who perform outside of the boundaries of work?– Work/life balance is not structured in an

obvious wayIn-house post-PC apps for the enterprise 32

What does MDM do?

• Enterprises were tooled up to manage Windows devices…– And mobile arrived!– First purpose is to close that gap– Second purpose is to provide for BYOD

• Features– Provisioning– App distribution– Document lockers– Security


MDM pricing

• About £5 per device per month


Provisioning with MDM

• The process of getting the device onto the network…– Have to install a bootstrapper– Apply policy, e.g. encryption, passcode– Automatic setup of email profiles,

VPN profiles etc– Automatic installation of apps

• If you’re buying enough, the bootstrapper can be installed by the retailer


App distribution with MDM

• Typically follows an “app store” metaphor

• Functions…– Whitelisting– Blacklisting– Required apps– Optional apps– Sideloading


Document lockers with MDM

• Secure container for managing documents– Sync with in-house systems

• SharePoint, file shares

– Remote wipe– Additional encryption


Security with MDM

• Enforced encryption

• GPS tracking

• Remote wipe


How mature is the MDM market?

• This market is now very mature for iOS and Android…– AirWatch– MobileIron– Good Technology

• It is less mature for Windows and BlackBerry…– Windows Intune

• Windows Phone, Windows 8, Windows RT

– BlackBerry Enterprise Services 10• Nee “Mobile Fusion”


BlackBerry Secure Work Space

• Interesting new product this year…– BlackBerry’s trick was always that

devices connect behind the firewall– BB10 devices with BES10 do this today– “Secure Work Space” will let iOS and

Android devices do this too


Q&A

• Matt Baxter-Reynolds (mbrit)– Twitter: @mbrit– Email: [email protected]


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

in-house post-pc apps for the enterprise

Technology

partyinhouse postpc

consoleinhouse postpc

contextinhouse postpc

workinhouse postpc apps

tabletsinhouse postpc

solutionsinhouse postpc

doinhouse postpc apps

agenda postpc