p2p vs. meap - the right approach for an integrated mobility solutions - whitepaper by rapidvalue...

7/29/2019 P2P vs. MEAP - The Right Approach for an Integrated Mobility Solutions - Whitepaper by RapidValue Solutions

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POINT-TO-POINT vs. MEAPTHE RIGHT APPROACH FOR AN INTEGRATED

MOBILITY SOLUTION

A RapidValue Solutions Whitepaper Feb - 2013


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RapidValueEnabling Mobil


020202

Executive Summary

There are two commonly used approaches for building

integrated mobility solutions: Point-to-point integration

and Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP).

This paper explains why an enterprise mobility

integration solution is needed, describes and comparesthe two approaches, and provides a guide for how to

choose the right mobility integration technique for you

organization. The paper also examines various MEAP

platforms available and the key differences between

popular platforms.

From a mobile application development standpoint,

there is another widely used approach: cross-platform

development frameworks. These frameworks allowdevelopers to build once and deploy across multiple

device platforms. However, these frameworks lack

integration and mobile device management capabilities

and therefore we have excluded them from

consideration for the purposes of this whitepaper. To

learn more about cross-platform development,

download our whitepaper: How to Choose the Right

Architecture for your Mobile Application -

http://www.rapidvaluesolutions.com/whitepaper/

Enterprise mobility has

transformed the way

businesses engage withcustomers, partners and staff

while exchanging critical

information. Innovative

applications are only part of

an overall mobility solution

integrating them with existing

systems in a scalable manneris equally important and can

be even more challenging.


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Enterprise Mobility Solutions

Gone are the days when employees would sit in front of their desktop computers all day to do their

work and communicate with coworkers and clients. More and more companies are adapting enterprise

mobility solutions to make it easier for their employees to work out of the office using mobile devices

and cloud services to perform business tasks.

Point-to-Point:An application deployment technique which allows mobile users

within the organization to perform a business operation and engage with co-workers

and customers. It is mainly designed for smaller organizations.

The two most popular enterprise mobility deployment techniques are:

01Mobile Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP): An application middleware

designed specifically for mobile enterprise application users. It allows controlled access

to all mobile applications hosted on a particular platform. Employees and enterprise

customers can access and exchange data from any mobile device to perform a numbe

of business operations.02Definition of MEAP

There is a general tendency to combine MEAP/middleware tools with cross-platform mobile

development tools. We would define MEAP as a platform that includes:

Comprehensive integration capabilities Connectivity to corporate systems such as ERP, CRM,

etc.

Mobile application development Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for building mobi

applications

Mobile Device Management (MDM) capabilities Support for device provisioning, secure

transmission of data, remote configuration, mobile asset tracking, policy identification and

adaptation, etc. Mobile Application Management (MAM) capabilities Support for provisioning and access contro

to mobile applications used in business settings (configuration settings, user authentication, pus

notification services, application usage analytics, etc.)



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As the name implies, cross-platform development frameworks provide the ability to develop once and

deploy across multiple platforms, but mainly on the client/device side with minimal support for

integration. Since this paper is about integrated mobility solutions, we focus on the MEAP approach,

with the view that cross-platform frameworks are outside the scope of the discussion.

MEAPExamples

Cross- Platform DevelopmentFrameworks Examples

Point-to-Point Solutions vs. MEAP

Point-to-Point Approach

Typically, a Point-to-Point (P2P)

integration solution is used to develop

an independent native application for

each business requirement, using

individual resources/middleware to

handle the data and control layer of the

application. This solution is useful when

data segregation is possible andindependent security for the application

is required.NATIVE APPS AS

REQUIRED ANDBASED ON LOCATION

MULTIPLEMIDDLEWARE

FOR EACHAPPLICATION

DATA WAREHOUSE

POINT-TO-POINT DEPLOYMENT ARCHITECTURE



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P2P Solution User experience is rich (typicallybased on native applicationdevelopment).

Less expensive to build compared toMEAP if the features required are

straightforward.

Performance is higher compared toMEAP since there are fewerapplications to handle.

Requires additional integration with identitymanagement.

Requires third-party connectors to integratewith external systems.

Need to build each application based on thespecific business requirement, with limitedreusability.

Any changes required in the application needdeveloper involvement.

ProsApproach Cons

MEAP Approach

MOBILE ENTERPRISEAPPLICATION

PLATFORM (MEAP)

Gartner Group has developed a concept called the Rule of Three for determining when to use a Mobile

Enterprise Application Platform (MEAP). According to the rule, you should use the MEAP approach for

enterprise mobility if the business requirements include (i) Three or more mobile applications, (ii)

Three or more mobile OS (Operating Systems) and (iii) Integration with at least three back-end data

sources.

IPAD

DESKTOP

IPHONE

BLACKBERRY

MEAP DEPLOYMENT ARCHITECTURE



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MEAP ARCHITECTURE BLOCK DIAGRAM

MOBILE DEVICEMANAGEMENT

INTEGRATEDDEVELOPMENTENVIRONMENT

AUTH

EAI ADAPTERS |SERVICE BUS

WEB SERVICES

DATABASECONNECTIONS

HTTP(S)

VPN

HTTP(S)

VPN

SERVER

(CLOUD

OR

ON-PREMISE)

DEVI

CE

POLICYENFORCEMENT

SOFTWAREDISTRIBUTION

CLIENT AGENT

SERVERAPPLICATION

LOGIC

CLIENTAPPLICATIONUI+ LOGIC

EAI TOOLS +LOGIC

DIRECTORYSERVICES

WEBAPPLICATION

SERVER

MULTICHANNELACCESSGATEWAY

OFFLINE NATIVESTORAGE

CLIENTAPPLICATIONRUNTIME

HTML5BROWSER

OFFLINEBROWSERSTORAGE

RELATIONALNoSQL

DATABASE

ENTERPRISE

PACKAGESDATA SOURCES

MEAP Highly scalable architecture.

Pre-integrated to identitymanagement system.

Supports multiple platforms native(iOS, Android, Windows Mobile,BlackBerry), web (XHTML browsers)and hybrid applications.

Can leverage device featuresseamlessly.

Plug-in or connectors are available tocommunicate with systems such asSAP, Oracle, CRMs, etc.

Web service layer runs on DMZ tosecure the entire infrastructure.

The solution can be deployed onpremises or in a cloud.

User interface and usability aresub-optimal.

Initial implementation time is higher.

Initial investment is high requires upfrontpayment for the solution, maintenance feeand user based fee.

Dedicated administrator is required tomaintain the MEAP server.

ProsApproach Cons


Source: robtiffany.com


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Comparing Point-to-Point and MEAPThe following table summarizes the key differences between Point-to-Point solutions and MEAP.

User Interface

Cross-device

platform support

One solution across a wide range of mobile

devices

Point-to-Point SolutionParameters Mobile Middleware/MEAP

Not as great as point-to-pointTypically a native application rich userexperience

Unique solution for every mobile device/mobile OS

Device

Management

Each device update needs to be man-aged individually

Each application update needs to bemanaged separately

Multiple proprietary tool sets arerequired for managing & monitoringapplications, security and devices

New applications can be placed in apre-defined shared location in themiddleware

Centralized management of data

Single tool for managing all devices,applications and security

Builds are specific to each type ofdevice

Remote locking of mobile devices andremote wiping of data are supported

Data resides in a centralized server

Controlled at one location with singleconsole

Flexibility in expanding mobility

Seamless user experience withincrease in number of users and/ormobile applications on the platform

Flexibility &Change

Management

Remote

Installation and

Updates

Connectivity

Security

Scalability &

Redundancy

Implementation

Cost

Multiple integrations required to connectall backend systems

Initial investment is low

Each point-to-point solution has its ownsecurity controls

Decreases as number of hosted mobileapplications increases

High, with optimized services betweenclient and server networks

Requires additional hardware and softwareto support additional users and/or mobileapplications

Not part of the solution but possible todistribute them over the air individually

Allows OTA provisioning to many devicesand mobile operating systemssimultaneously

Pre-integrated with all kinds of backenddatabases and other applications

Initial investment is high

Performance



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Summary Comparison Between Two Key MEAPsThe table below summarizes the differences between two popular MEAPs: Kony and SAP Unwired. We

have selected only these two MEAPs for comparison to illustrate key parameters you should evaluate

before deciding on the right MEAP for your enterprise.

Kony

NATIVE APPLICATION CAPABILITIES

PLATFORMS SUPPORTED

Parameters SAP Unwired

Yes

Yes

Yes

Single code base for all nativeUI components

Access to all native capabilities

Native code generation

Native UI components have to bedeveloped specific to each platform usingnative languages

Supported with code written in native

Not at present

Rich UXUser experience Browser-dependent. Code must bewritten specifically for each nativeplatform

iPhone, Android, BlackBerry(4.2.1 and above), Win-dows Phone (5.0 up toWindows 8), Symbian,Palm, J2ME

Windows 7

Device platforms

Desktop clients/kiosks

Windows Mobile 6.0, 6.1, 6.5 (Standardand Professional), Windows XP, Vista and7 (32 bit and 64 bit), BlackBerry 5.0 and6.0, iOS 4.2 and 4.3

Windows XP, Vista and 7

Eight dedicated websites for15+ browsers, five formfactors, from WML toHTML5

Device-optimized mobile web Not at present

Overall Cost Customizations are expensive. IT costincreases with increase in team size(mobile enterprise app users)

Lower administrative, maintenanceand support costs

Cost-effective if many mobileenterprise applications are to besupported supported



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PLATFORM FEATURES

7+Number of operating systemsfor native applicationssupported

7+

YesAccess to HTML5 capabilities Yes

Lua/JavascriptLanguage used Mainly Java, .Net and Objective C arealso used

YesCross-platform debugger Not at present

YesQuick UI preview on allplatforms

None. Need to build and compile theprojects to view the UI

YesForeign function support fromsingle codebase

Not at present

YesAbility to seamlessly createnative deployable binaries forall platforms

Requires usage of platform specificnative SDK tools (to be configured andunderstood)

Yes, all glue code isauto-generated

Extensions ability to augmentexisting APIs withoutknowledge of underlying SDK

Yes, but glue code has to be manuallywritten for each of native SDK

YesDrag & drop widgets for UIdevelopment

Needs to be done outside the developerplatform

Not requiredCoding required for consumingdata from network services andmapping it to the UI widgets(80% of the applicationcodebase)

Yes, all data mapping code has to behandwritten

By default purely native,optionally WebUI can beused for rendering

Wrapper-based solution (usesWebView for rendering)

Yes, a hybrid web based containerapproach

Yes. Also supports offlinesync

Synchronization capabilities Yes. Also supports offline sync

YesAbility to download a newversion of the applicationwithout accessing app stores

Yes

Yes, supported via Kony AppStore and Kony AppManagement Container

Mobile Application Managementwith App managementcapability

Requires additional license and compo-nent via Afaria



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Eclipse plugin from KonyIntegrated DevelopmentEnvironment (IDE)

Eclipse IDE

Web Services support

REST/SOAP

Backend system integration Sybase ASE 12.x and 15.x, Sybase SQL

Anywhere 11.x, Oracle 10g and 11g, MSSQL Server 2005 and 2008, UDB 9.1,SAP R/3 4.6 and higher, SOAP and REST(XML) Services

YesExtensible connectors toconsume data from SAP, webservices, XML, Java API

Yes

YesOracle backend support Yes

YesConnectors to Siebel,PeopleSoft and SharePoint

Information not available

Five ways to connect toSAP JCO, Gateway (OData),Web Services, HTTP, iWay ,and SAP Namespace (insideSAP) i.e. no middleware

Connectors to SAP Supports JCO, Gateway and WebServices

SMS/MMS 2-Way andcommon push APIs

SMS/MMS (2-Way & push) Not supported

INTEGRATION AND CONNECTORS



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Choosing the Right Approach

What approach works best for your enterprise? While each organization will have a different mobility

strategy, when it comes to selecting mobile enterprise applications, you will reach a point where you

have to decide between a point-to-point solution and MEAP. As always, the right solution for your

organization depends on your business requirements. The following figure illustrates key factors that

will help you decide on a mobility solution thats appropriate for your organization.

POINT-TO-POINT

SOLUTION

Focus is on building a small number of applications to run on a few

mobile operating systems only (Blackberry, iOS, Android, Windows mobile)

Out-of-the-box solution is acceptable, and does not require much

customization

Requires very few internal updates

MEAP

(MOBILE

MIDDLE WARE)

Requires device-agnostic solution

Host multiple mobile applications across multiple mobile operating

systems

Simplifies integration to back-end systems

Cost-effective over the long term

POINT-TO-POINT SOLUTION VS. MEAP

DECISION MAKING CHART

According to industry experts, a MEAP

solution works best for organizations looking

for over three mobile applications or above

150 users. This decision-making chart will

help you select between the two enterprise

mobility approaches. However, before making

a decision, you need to understand the pros

and cons of both types of enterprise mobility

solutions and the cost involved in switchingbetween the two solutions in the future

should that become necessary.

50 100 150 200

1 2 3 4

Lo

Hi MEAP PERFORMANCE

MEAP TCO

POINT SOLUTIONPERFORMANCE

POINTSOLUTION TCO

PERFORMANCE

TCO PER USER

Users

Applications

Source: [Sybase White Paper]: Whats the point? Comparisonof Middleware Vs. Point Solutions



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Conclusion

Of all the factors driving the need for mobility, the main parameters to consider are the number of

applications, the device platforms to be supported, the amount of flexibility and control you need for

managing the servers and how quickly you plan to scale up. A point-to-point solution is the most

cost-effective and fastest approach for an immediate, single mobile application deployment. MEAP is

best suited for organizations with a well-defined mobility strategy and a vision for expanding their use

of mobile applications.

If you have any questions or need more information about building an integrated mobility

solution, give us a call at 877-690-4744 or visit us at RapidValueSolutions.com. We look

forward to hearing from you!



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0202020203020210 RapidValueEnabling Mobil

About RapidValue

RapidValue is a leading provider of end-to-end mobility solutions to enterprises worldwide. We offer a

range of mobility services across industry verticals, drawing upon a team of 175+ experts in mobility

consulting and application development, along with experience delivering over 200 mobility projects.

RapidValue delivers its services to the worlds top brands and Fortune 1000 companies, and has offices

in the United States and India.

www.rapidvaluesolutions.com www.rapidvaluesolutions.com/blog

+1 877.690.4844 [email protected]

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