These materials are © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any … · 2020-07-13 · These materials are 21 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthoried use is

These materials are © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.


by Brian Underdahl

Enterprise Mobility

Oracle 2nd Edition


Enterprise Mobility For Dummies®, Oracle 2nd Edition

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030‐5774 www.wiley.com

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Table of ContentsIntroduction .................................................................. 1About This Book ............................................................1Icons Used in This Book ................................................2

Chapter 1: Understanding Enterprise Mobility ....... 3Looking at the State of Enterprise Mobility ................3Seeing Mobile’s Critical Role ........................................4Looking at Where It Began ............................................6

Chapter 2: More than Mobile Apps .......................... 7Understanding that Apps Are Just the Beginning......8Considering Mobile Architectures ...............................8Introducing Mobile Backend as a Service .................10Understanding Mobile Clients ....................................12Looking at Mobile Analytics .......................................14

Chapter 3: Looking at Mobile Security .................. 15Evolving Mobile Security ............................................15Seeing Where Mobile Security Is Going ....................19

Chapter 4: Mobile Integration ................................. 23Understanding What Issues You Need

to Consider .................................................................24Comparing Proprietary and Open APIs.....................25Taking an API‐first Approach .....................................26Understanding the Mobile App Lifecycle .................27

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Chapter 5: Exploring Oracle Mobile Platform ...... 29Understanding Oracle Mobile Cloud Service ...........30Using Mobile Application Framework (MAF) ...........33Getting to Know Oracle JavaScript

Extension Toolkit (JET) ............................................34Understanding Mobile Application

Accelerator (MAX) ....................................................35

Chapter 6: Looking Ahead ........................................ 37Seeing That “Mobile” Will Disappear ........................37Considering the Internet of Things ............................38Moving to Microservices ............................................39It’s All About the Ecosystem ......................................40

Chapter 7: Key Facts About Enterprise Mobility ....................................................................... 43Mobile Means Productivity.........................................43Integration with Backend Systems

Is a Necessity .............................................................43Mobile Requires Continuous Development ..............44APIs Accelerate Innovation.........................................44Go Beyond Mobile First; It’s Time for a

Mobile‐Plus Strategy .................................................44


Introduction

T oday’s workforce is embracing mobile at an accelerating pace. Mobile devices are rapidly sup-

planting television, desktops, laptops, and so on as the primary screen people use for entertainment, informa-tion, communication, and work. Your organization needs to plan and be ready for this transformation in order to remain relevant, or risk being left behind.

Mobile is much more than the mobile apps on your phone. The apps are merely the surface. Mobile inte-gration, security, analytics, development tools, life cycle management, various mobile stakeholders, and the overall enterprise mobile ecosystem all shape enterprise mobility.

This book will help you get past the jargon and hype to better understand the latest industry trends in mobility as you create a comprehensive mobile strategy that addresses your needs today while remaining flexible to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

About This BookEnterprise Mobility For Dummies, Oracle 2nd Edition, shows you what you need to consider in developing apps for the modern and evolving environment. You’ll see where enterprise mobility is today, the consider-ations you need to understand, how to choose the right development platform, and where the future is heading.

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This book contains a number of interesting chapters. If you’re in a hurry to find out more about something specific, feel free to jump right to that point in the book. But please take the time to come back later and have a look at the other chapters so you don’t miss something important.

Icons Used in This BookThis book uses the following icons to call your atten-tion to information you may find helpful in particular ways.

The information marked by this icon is impor-tant and therefore repeated for emphasis. This way, you can easily spot noteworthy informa-tion when you refer to the book later.

This icon points out extra‐helpful information.

This icon marks places where technical mat-ters are discussed. Sorry, it can’t be helped, but it’s intended to be helpful.

Paragraphs marked with the Warning icon call attention to common pitfalls that you may encounter.


Understanding Enterprise Mobility

In This Chapter▶▶ Introducing enterprise mobility today▶▶ Looking at the importance of enterprise mobility▶▶ Taking a brief look back

T his chapter looks at what enterprise mobility means today and why it’s so critical for you to embrace

mobile for your organization. You’ll also see a bit of his-tory so you can get a better handle on how far mobile has moved in a very short time and gain an understand-ing of just how amazing these changes really are.

Looking at the State of Enterprise MobilityLeading analysts predict that by 2020, 80 percent of adults worldwide will have a smartphone. On average, each person looks at mobile devices 150 times a day. Researchers predict that by 2018, most mobile business‐to‐employee apps will be written with codeless tools.

Chapter 1

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By some estimates there are (or soon will be) more connected mobile devices such as smartphones, tab-lets, and watches than there are people in the world. Quite simply, mobile has become the new normal. Mobile is the primary means by which huge numbers of people work, connect, and consume content.

The rapid rise of mobile connectivity means that mobile devices are rapidly supplanting traditional outlets such as television and com-puters as the first screen, meaning that content providers and app developers need to provide a great mobile experience or be left behind!

In addition to things you might naturally think of as mobile devices, it’s important to also consider other types of devices that are increasingly becoming connected. The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) means that all sorts of new devices, from cars to smart appli-ances, will be connected. Many of these devices will offer opportunities for applica-tions no one has yet considered.

Soon, connectivity will be the expected state for new devices. Just as everyone assumes that the web is part of their everyday life, mobile connectivity is rapidly reaching the point where connectivity and mobility, across devices, will be transparent.

Seeing Mobile’s Critical RoleThe overwhelming shift to mobile means that large influential technology companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple are heavily investing in the mobile arena. Frankly, they don’t have a choice if they want to be relevant.

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Emerging technologies have a way of quickly becoming essential and even conventional. For example, consider how, in the past few years, the cloud has reached a tip-ping point, with broad acceptance and adoption in the mainstream. What began as a way to offload noncritical storage and compute cycles has evolved to include critical components of corporate computing. Hardware and software that used to be installed and managed on‐premises is rapidly moving to the cloud because of lower costs, less maintenance, proven security, and near limitless scalability. Mobile is rapidly moving into that same critical status.

As mobile apps become more strategic to the success of the business, line‐of‐business man-agers often become more involved in needing to analyze and determine the success of their mobile strategies. The requirements go well beyond measuring how many times an app has been downloaded. Business managers need the right metrics and analytics to gain insight into its use and adoption:

✓ Has the new app engaged the user community?

✓ How are people using it? Which features, how often?

✓ What is its impact on sales? Support?

Users expect a good app experience. They compare enterprise apps with consumer apps. It’s the consumerization of IT. Ignoring these expectations is a sure way to fail. Find out how Oracle provides the tools you need to easily deliver what users expect in Chapter 5.

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If you need an argument in favor of why your organization needs to take mobile seriously, consider that by 2017, global mobile app reve-nues are projected to top 76 billion dollars annually. That’s a market you can’t afford to miss!

If you’re in the media production or media distribution arena, you’ve no doubt noticed that most online media consumption is also being driven by the growth of mobile. In fact, some estimates are that currently, mobile devices account for seven out of every eight minutes of media streaming.

Looking at Where It BeganTo understand how quickly mobile has become a major force in the market, it might be helpful to take a quick look back at recent history. Consider the following:

✓ Long ago, television was king. The public didn’t have much contact with the Internet before about 1995.

✓ Ten years ago, flip phones were the top dogs in the world of cell phones. Blackberry and Motorola were the leading brands.

✓ Smartphones were an expensive novelty ten years ago, and apps were unknown to most users. People who wanted to access streaming content on the go had to put up with sites designed for desktop PCs.

Moving forward to today, all of these things seem almost unthinkable. Imagine how user expectations will change in the next few years.


More than Mobile Apps

In This Chapter▶▶ Seeing beyond apps▶▶ Looking at mobile architectures▶▶ Understanding mobile backend as a service▶▶ Considering mobile clients▶▶ Taking a look at mobile analytics

I t’s easy to get caught up in the idea that all you need to do is create a mobile app and your work is done,

the company will reap enormous profits, and all will be right in the world. The truth, of course, is that there’s much more to consider, including such things as different mobile architectures, backend services, and analytics. Most analysts estimate that 80 percent of the work is in the integration of backend systems.

This chapter provides an introduction to a number of those important points and helps you to understand your options.

Chapter 2

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Understanding that Apps Are Just the BeginningThe industry is way past the days of isolated mobile applications. Today’s user expectations are that an app can do anything and everything. Weather, yes. Maps, yes. Your heart rate, yes. Personal or corporate communications, email, text, instant messaging — yes, yes, and yes. Hey Siri! Okay Google! Apps can do anything.

Users also expect apps to be interconnected with other systems. After all, why should you have to look up something yourself when the app can do it for you?

In the early days of mobile, the emphasis was on the app, in and of itself. Apps were a new idea, and users didn’t know what to expect. Apps today are expected to be connected. They won’t exist in isolation. Think of connected devices — your phone apps give you access to your car, your home, your entertainment system, and your connected life. Benedict Evans, partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, refers to the smartphone as a “new sun” that has other devices orbiting around it.

Considering Mobile ArchitecturesMobile apps and services don’t exist in isolation. A whole architectural structure must exist to support the apps you want to deliver. Today, however, you need to think more broadly:

✓ Clients: Users expect apps and services that have a familiar look and feel on any platform.

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Cross‐platform capability for iOS, Android, and Windows is a key consideration.

✓ Integration: Users want mobile access just like the access they have on their desktops — to the HR system, financial system, company directory, talent management, expense apps, and so on.

✓ Security: Enterprise and security go hand in hand. Aside from strong encryption, you’ll want to incorporate your existing security infastructure (see Chapter 3 for more on mobile security).

✓ Standards: Adopting established open standards means that apps and services aren’t bound to any proprietary protocols and thus enhance flexibility.

✓ Evolution: Nothing in mobile is stagnant, and you need to plan for future evolution. Who knows if today’s hot technology will be obsolete tomorrow?

APIs are the means to enable programmatic interaction to backend systems. In the past, API development was often treated as an afterthought, and different apps might require changes to APIs. An API‐first strategy — defining the needed APIs prior to app development — helps ensure client and services developers are on the same page. Chapter 4 provides more information about how Oracle’s tools make an API‐first approach easier to implement.

Don’t be confused by the term API. Traditionally, an API was an application programming interface. This kind of API was called from code such as C, C++, or Java. When this book mentions APIs, think of RESTful web services, typically with a JSON payload.

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Another important recent cloud‐related trend has been the idea of providing microservices. Under microservice architecture, complex apps are composed of loosely coupled services that individually accomplish a focused task. Microservices facilitate a modular approach to app development. They enable more flexibility because they provide the capability to easily replace services as needed. Chapter 6 goes into more detail regarding microservices.

Introducing Mobile Backend as a ServiceTo provide useful services, mobile apps need to connect to backend resources in a consistent, reliable, scalable manner. Developing and maintaining these cloud‐based services, while at the same time providing the necessary APIs, is often a complex and time‐ consuming task.

Recently, a new approach to providing the necessary resources called mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) has evolved. An MBaaS provides developers and managers a common platform with important mobile tools, services, and insights, such as:

✓ Common mobile services, such as push notifications, data storage, mobile client data sync, and user management

✓ A common platform for the development, deployment, and management of an API catalog for both client app and backend services developers

✓ Mobile analytic dashboards and services that help developers and line‐of‐business managers monitor the performance and success of all deployed mobile applications

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MBaaS abstracts the server‐side infrastructure so your developers don’t have to concern themselves with how the server is structured. Instead, developers simply assemble the building blocks of the app and write the code that connects them to the backend infrastructure as services, as shown in Figure 2‐1. The end result is that the developers can concentrate on creating an app that looks and functions as users expect.

Figure 2-1: Using MBaaS to connect to the backend infrastructure.

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MBaaS provides the platform from which backend service developers can connect to backend systems (such as human resources or finance) and expose services from those backends as mobile‐friendly APIs. Backend service developers create the APIs that are shown in the API catalog. Mobile app developers browse the API catalog for the needed functionality. Mobile app developers and backend service developers collaborate to define the APIs needed to create a mobile app with access to the backend systems.

MBaaS also makes cross‐platform app development easier because developers don’t have to create separate backend systems for each platform. Instead, the same services can easily be provided to all clients, no matter what type of device or OS might be involved. The bottom line is that MBaaS will likely save you money and produce better results.

Understanding Mobile ClientsDelivering your mobile services means providing useful information in a convenient form. Doing so requires some sort of mobile client software. Depending on your needs, the client might be:

✓ A native app: This can function only on specific platforms such as iOS or Android, so you may need to develop several versions to reach the broadest audience. A native app must be written in its platform’s native language, such as Objective‐C or Swift for iOS, or Java for Android.

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✓ A web app: This generally means using whatever web browser is built into the mobile platform. Web apps work across platforms, but don’t always offer the full range of features that native apps can.

✓ A hybrid app: This is part native app and part web app, but with all app resources local on the device. Generally, this means an app installed on the device, using Cordova to provide access to native device services and the platform’s WebView to render an HTML5 interface.

Both web apps and hybrid apps often rely upon HTML5 to deliver rich content. HTML5 is a popular technology for supplying streaming content because virtually all modern browsers can recognize and display HTML5 content.

A growing trend in app development is something that’s often referred to as code‐free app development. These are apps that almost anyone can create with development tools that don’t require advanced programming abilities. Some of these tools, such as Oracle’s Mobile Application Accelerator (MAX), provide templates so nontechnical staff can pick and choose the necessary features to build the apps. Chapter 5 provides more information on this topic.

Integrating mobile clients to backend services is often more complex and difficult than creating the client itself. Services like MBaaS, discussed earlier in this chapter, can greatly ease the burden of making these connections.

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Looking at Mobile AnalyticsMobile analytics are a vital tool in helping you determine if people are using your apps and if those apps are performing as they should. This type of information is critical for both technical users and business users:

✓ Developers: Mobile analytics give immediate feedback, enabling developers to identify performance issues, bottlenecks, or other problems that must be addressed.

✓ Business users: These users benefit from understanding how well apps are being adopted, when, where, and why, not only at the app level, but right down to the specific API, feature, or programmed event.

To understand the importance of mobile analytics, think of the early years of the web, when site owners were flying blind. Eventually, a number of analytic tools came into existence to help site owners understand their users. Mobile analytics provide the same kinds of useful information about mobile apps.


Looking at Mobile Security

In This Chapter▶▶ Understanding how mobile security has evolved▶▶ Looking to the future

T o be truly useful, mobile devices must be connected, but connectivity brings many security

risks. Mobile users are at risk from rogue apps that threaten to compromise personal information. Not only must a mobile user’s personal information be secured, but enterprise resources must also be protected from unauthorized access. This chapter looks at how mobile security has changed and where it needs to go in order to meet the needs of both the mobile user community and companies that provide mobile access to their backend systems.

Evolving Mobile SecurityThe security of mobile devices and their connections to the enterprise has changed significantly over the years and continues to change and evolve. When mobile devices were introduced, and as these devices were first used in an enterprise setting, the focus for mobile security was primarily on device management.

Chapter 3

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Enterprises typically issued devices to their employees. The devices, as well as the applications on them, were tightly controlled utilizing mobile device management (MDM) software.

Data security for applications as they connected and integrated with corporate backends was typically provided by virtual private networking (VPN) software installed on the devices.

With the advent of the smartphone, typically considered to be the introduction of Apple’s iPhone in June of 2007, an employee’s personal device was often more capable than the devices issued by the enterprises and provided a better user experience.

This change led to a shift in the way corporate IT teams approached managing employee mobile devices. Instead of issuing devices to employees, corporations instead began to adopt bring‐your‐own‐device (BYOD) policies, where users were responsible for their own devices and IT focused on data security and application control.

Keeping up to date with enterprise mobile managementAs mobility proceeded to fundamentally transform the way we live, work, and play, mobile security has had to keep pace with that change and include more comprehensive security features. For enterprises, the goal is to extend corporate identities and security policies to the device without interfering with an employee’s personal use of the device. This change has led to a new category of mobile security features called enterprise mobile management (EMM).

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EMM features include:

✓ Mobile device management: Traditional mobile security capabilities that include device‐centric security policies, device enrollment, device control, and device inventory

✓ Mobile application management: Capabilities focusing on application‐centric features including security policies, built‐in personal information manager (PIM) apps (such as email or contacts), zero code wrapping technology, and an enterprise app store for internal app distribution

✓ Mobile identity: Extending the corporate identity to the mobile device, including single sign‐on across mobile apps, risk/context‐aware step‐up authentication, self‐service and delegated administration, and certificate LCM

Many EMM vendors offer application wrapping, a process that modifies the application post‐compilation. The wrapping process allows applications to be managed in a secure container on the device, typically through an enterprise app store. The secure container provides separation of personal apps and data from corporate apps and data. In addition, corporate applications in the container may be removed from the device remotely, protecting data in what is called “the taxicab scenario” — circumstances where a mobile device is lost or accidentally left behind.

Application wrapping is also used to enable the creation of application‐based secure tunnels to the corporate network. This methodology is preferable to VPN because access to corporate infrastructure is not

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opened to all applications on the device. Policies may also be applied to wrapped applications that prevent data leak protection (DLP). DLP is intended to prevent cutting and pasting, emailing, or otherwise sharing sensitive data.

Preparing for new threatsWith the increasing prevalence of BYOD, enterprises have become aware of the threat that a broad spectrum of user‐owned mobile devices present. The threat has brought a demand for more capable security features in those devices. Now even BYOD is evolving to include corporate owned, personally enabled (COPE) devices. In this scenario, the corporation owns the device that is issued to the employee, but the device is enabled for personal use.

Because new use cases continue to appear, corporate IT must have a comprehensive and flexible approach to manage the functionality that businesses need while protecting sensitive data against external threats.

As enterprise security evolves, it is incorporating new techniques such as biometrics and multi‐factor authentication. Mobile security must be able to support these new standards.

Even though mobile security begins at the device, you can’t ignore the rest of the connection. Data can be at risk of interception or compromise as it passes between the mobile device and the server. You need to make sure that all communications are properly encrypted — including any initial logon sequences where attackers might steal

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unencrypted usernames and passwords. Use protocols like Transport Layer Security (TLS) to secure communications between the client and any backend services.

Seeing Where Mobile Security Is GoingClearly, you now need mobile security solutions that can adapt to new environments. Just as you can’t predict which mobile devices will dominate user demand next year, it’s unwise to depend on a security solution that focuses on last year’s needs. Instead, it’s important to find solutions that can change and adapt along with your users. This section looks at some important areas of emerging mobile security solutions.

Moving security features into the operating systemAs mobile security features and software have matured, the individual features of mobile security have become fundamentally necessary to support enterprise application needs.

Mobile OS vendors such as Apple and Google have incorporated more and more security features into the base operating systems of mobile devices. For example, Google introduced Android for Work, a program supporting enterprise use of Android. Android for Work consists of product features in Android, Google Play for Work, and other productivity tools that provide APIs to perform many EMM tasks.

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Recently, a coalition of EMM vendors has come together to work on App Configuration for Enterprise (ACE), an open‐standards approach to building management and security features into enterprise apps. ACE provides a universal set of standards that enterprise app developers and EMM vendors can use to integrate security and management features into apps. In the short term, these standards mean more consistency across EMM software, but in the long term, these features likely will become part of the core mobile OS.

Extending the corporate identityDo you want to allow just anyone to have full access to your online corporate resources? That question has an obvious answer, but the implication is that you have a very strong need to know exactly who is getting in.

As enterprises allow sensitive data to go out to mobile devices, IT security wants to extend the corporate identity of the user to the device as well. This means identifying the user in the context of the corporate enterprise as well as enforcing corporate data roles and policies. These mechanisms protect data within the enterprise’s internal infrastructure, and the same type of management and protection is required on mobile devices.

Identity management is one of the keys to knowing who can gain access to corporate data. Depending on the type of resource you’re making available, you may require:

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✓ A fully verified identification: Sensitive information that must be protected from unauthorized access requires that you know exactly who is accessing the data. You may settle for a username and password, but increasingly, two‐factor authentication, such as entering a PIN sent to a registered device via SMS, is becoming the norm.

✓ Authentication versus authorization: Authentication is about identifying the identity of the user requesting access. Authentication is only part of the equation, however. Authorization is also about what the user is allowed to do. This information is often stored in a corporate identity provider (IdP). Extending roles, policies, and access privileges to mobile devices can be a key aspect of mobile security.

When you’ve identified who is trying to access enterprise resources from a mobile device, you can concentrate on enabling appropriate access. Maintaining proper access controls can mean the difference between remaining a profitable business and being the subject of criminal investigations, so you need to take this task seriously.

Consider, for example, the implications of allowing inappropriate access to patient health records. Businesses that don’t take adequate precautions with this type of information can be subject to major fines and even prosecution! But even more mundane information, such as proprietary sales information or new product plans, requires proper access controls.

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In most cases, identity management and access controls are part of a combined solution, but depending on your specific needs, you may need separate products. This is one place where you want an experienced vendor who can address the unique requirements of your industry.

Increasingly, identity management is moving to cloud‐based services. Offloading this task to a cloud service provider enables you to concentrate on providing your product or service rather than expending efforts on identity management. Even so, onpremises identity management solutions remain a popular option.


Mobile Integration

In This Chapter▶▶ Understanding the considerations▶▶ Comparing approaches▶▶ Using an API‐first approach▶▶ Looking at the lifecycle

M obile isn’t a totally separate entity; instead, you should think of it as an effective way to leverage

your resources. Integrating mobile into your existing systems takes some careful planning that can only be done properly if you have a clear understanding of what’s involved. This chapter looks at what you need to know to successfully integrate mobile into your enterprise environment.

Chapter 4

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Understanding What Issues You Need to ConsiderAs with any major investment, mobile integration takes some planning. You need a firm grasp on a number of important issues:

✓ Security: Because mobile is a new channel, IT experts note that security should be the chief concern for organizations addressing enterprise mobility. In addition to encryption, support for single sign‐on and existing identity management systems is critical to enterprise adoption.

✓ User convenience is vital: Users quickly abandon apps that fall short of expectations. Users expect apps that are intuitive, are secure, and do what is promised. About one in four mobile apps are used only once after being downloaded.

✓ Backend integration is a necessity: Apps must deliver the right context, such as a shopping cart that works the same as on a desktop system. Users expect the same capabilities that they have when they are at their desktop computers or laptops.

✓ Innovation must be continuous: Users expect apps to offer the latest features and improve-ments. You can’t simply release an app and think you’re done.

✓ UX design: Design for mobile devices can be chal-lenging because the mobile screen is much smaller than a laptop or desktop screen.

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You can’t afford to ignore any of these expectations. For example, if your security model makes your app hard to use, users won’t stick around even if their data is guaranteed safe. You need to balance both demands.

In today’s digital world, business departments want to innovate at their own pace, while IT teams want the tools and features that help speed development and integration. This is where the cloud intersects with mobile devel-opment to streamline backend integration, user security, and management. The cloud facilitates mobile development.

Comparing Proprietary and Open APIsMobile app development requires rapid development across a variety of target devices and channels. In the past, this meant developing a number of different apps using proprietary APIs targeted to particular platforms. The use of proprietary APIs made creating apps for multiple types of devices inefficient and expensive.

The term API originally referred only to appli-cation programming interfaces. The industry now also uses API to refer to RESTful web ser-vices. When this book mentions APIs, think of RESTful web services.

Recently, the industry has made a transition away from proprietary protocols and toward adoption of repre-sentational state transfer (REST) as the communication protocol between client and server. REST adoption has resulted in improvements in scalability, simplicity, por-tability, and reliability. This transition has also made

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app development more efficient and less expensive because developers can leverage components across platforms far more easily.

Taking an API‐first ApproachAnother recent change in the development process is the move to an API‐first approach. Here, too, the change is making app development easier and more efficient.

In the past, developers needed to be experts in dealing with backend systems. They needed to know how those systems worked before they could make an app communicate properly and exchange data. This requirement meant that developers needed deep (and expensive) technical knowledge. App development was too complicated for anyone except very experienced programmers. In addition, apps could easily be broken if changes were made to the backend systems.

An API‐first development approach places much earlier and greater emphasis on developing APIs that develop-ers can use to request services from the backend sys-tems. Using this approach, a complete set of APIs is created covering all interactions between frontend apps and backend services. App developers simply call the APIs from within their apps whenever they need to interact with a backend system.

The API‐first approach means that backend system administrators can make system updates without worrying about breaking existing apps. As long as the APIs continue to function in the same way and supply the same services, the apps never know that the back-end has been changed.

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API‐first makes app development much easier because the developer only needs to know which APIs provide the services needed by an app. Developers need not have expertise in how to integrate to various systems. API‐first frees developers to focus on creating the best user experience for the application — the best UX.

Mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) fits nicely into an API‐first approach because with MBaaS, developers simply write apps to defined APIs.

Understanding the Mobile App LifecycleMobile apps tend to have a different lifecycle than tra-ditional desktop applications had in the past. It’s important to keep this difference in mind as you plan to create and deploy on mobile platforms.

App evolutionOne of the biggest differences between traditional desktop applications and mobile apps is that users expect mobile apps to continually evolve. You can’t release your app and think that you’re done for the next year (or six months, even). You need to keep thinking of new features, better ease of use, and a fresh but familiar appearance — and you’d better be doing all of this the day you release your app! Consider how your phone constantly reminds you of updates.

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Development, testing, deployment, and managingAfter you’ve decided to create an app, you need to go through a series of important steps:

1. Development: Create the app concept, make sure you follow platform guidelines, and brainstorm with your team to make sure you’ve covered all the bases.

2. Testing: Do internal testing to make sure every-thing works as expected, but don’t stop there. Give the app to some non‐technical users and see if they can use it successfully without prompting. Remember that you won’t be there to help the real‐world users after the app is released.

3. Deployment: In most cases, you need to pass muster with the gatekeepers at an app store. Only after your app is approved will you be allowed to release it to the world.

4. Management: Make sure you provide a means for feedback and that you follow up on all comments.

5. Lifecycle management: Keep track of app and API‐level versioning, including historical capture of evolution.


Exploring Oracle Mobile Platform

In This Chapter▶▶ Understanding Oracle Mobile Cloud Service▶▶ Considering client application development▶▶ Making sure you can connect

O racle Mobile Platform is designed to simplify enterprise mobility. This chapter provides a brief

introduction to Oracle’s mobile solution so you can get a better handle on what’s available.

Oracle Mobile Platform provides a complete end‐to‐end solution that manages the entire mobile life cycle. The key tenet of Oracle’s mobile solution is to provide a platform that allows customers to develop, connect, secure, analyze, and manage their mobile applications. Customers can build custom apps or use and extend the hundreds of packaged mobile apps offered.

The product set included in the portfolio and described in this chapter includes:

✓ Mobile Cloud Service (MCS)

✓ Mobile Application Framework (MAF)

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✓ JavaScript Extension Toolkit (JET)

✓ Mobile Application Accelerator (MAX)

With Mobile Cloud Service (which includes Oracle MAX and a license for Oracle MAF), Oracle provides the capability to build, connect, secure, analyze, and manage mobile apps quickly and efficiently.

Understanding Oracle Mobile Cloud ServiceChapter 2 talks about mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) and how important it is in supporting today’s mobile development efforts. Mobile Cloud Service is Oracle’s MBaaS. You need the right tools if you want to maximize your mobile application efforts and keep your development costs to a minimum. Oracle offers several tools that you need to know about.

Oracle Mobile Cloud Service is a comprehensive set of cloud‐based mobile services designed to make app development and integration quick, secure, and easy to deploy.

MCS reduces the complexities of application development by providing ready‐to‐integrate features and template backend.

With MCS, developers can focus on the front end of applications and can have their choice of mobile client development tools including MAF for cross‐platform hybrid apps, native development, or other JavaScript tools.

Mobile Cloud Service is designed for multiple roles within any organization. The mobile developer can use

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it to develop mobile apps, the service developer can use it to process access in the secure, scalable man-ager, and the business stakeholder can monitor and analyze the success of the mobile apps.

Oracle Mobile Cloud Service offers the complete set of services needed to:

✓ Speed innovation and agility:

• Keep pace with business needs and mobile app client development.

• Add mobile‐centric features — push, sync, storage, diagnostics, and analytics.

✓ Reduce cost:

• Reduce risk of mobile connectivity into enter-prise data centers.

• Get insights into mobile portfolio ROI.

✓ Simplify enterprise mobility:

• Easily connect mobile apps to enterprise back-end services and security.

• Hire less experienced mobile developers and enable them with enterprise‐grade services.

• Increase mobile adoption and personalize engagement.

The Oracle Mobile Cloud Service goal is to easily enable mobile application developers who are looking for new ways to accelerate development of apps to meet their consumers’ needs. MCS reduces the com-plexities of application development by dealing with complex server‐side programming, reducing the redun-dancy in creating backend code blocks, and providing ready‐to‐integrate features and template backend.

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Developers can focus on the front end of applications and can have their choice of mobile client development tools including SDKs for iOS, Android, JavaScript, and Windows 10.

MCS provides a set of rich RESTful interfaces for all operations required by the mobile app. These inter-faces abstract the backend from the mobile developer. In addition, MCS provides mobile‐specific interfaces for notifications that are multi‐channel including in‐app and SMS, offline data sync, persistence services (to store mobile‐generated data and user preferences), and cloud data storage services.

From a backend perspective, MCS provides all the tools required by API developers to expose and shape the services to be consumed by the mobile developer. This includes mechanisms to design, create, and expose these services in a catalog that can be easily and securely discoverable by mobile developers and inte-grated into their apps.

Security is a critical component and is designed ground‐up in the MCS. MCS services include tokens that developers use to develop and consume APIs, encryption policies for data in rest and data in motion, policies for single sign‐on and federated authentication across multiple data sources through OAuth or SAML, and policies for defining access rights to applications through mobile application management or container technologies.

A key component of MCS is to provide devel-opers, IT, and business with metrics on ser-vice usage and business impact. MCS will be designed to provide technical metrics, engage-ment metrics, and business metrics along with service monitoring and management.

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Oracle Mobile Platform leverages Oracle Fusion Middleware infrastructure to expose enterprise appli-cations and data as web services and RESTful APIs that allow easy integration between mobile apps and back-end systems. The same platform that you use to develop and maintain your enterprise applications can be extended to develop, integrate, secure, deploy, and manage your mobile applications.

Oracle Mobile Platform provides a high‐ performance and highly scalable architecture that can run both web and mobile apps. Apps created with Oracle Mobile Platform integrate easily with each other as well as with third‐party applications based on Java and other industry‐standard languages and protocols. This platform also protects APIs to uphold corporate security and compliance policies, with comprehensive capabilities for mobile identity management and mobile application management.

Many different flavors of backend systems exist. You need to be able to connect your mobile apps to those existing backend systems rather than going to the effort and expense of replacing them.

Using Mobile Application Framework (MAF)Oracle MAF lets you build applications that are portable across devices and operating systems while still lever-aging the device‐specific capabilities and delivering a rich user experience. Applications developed with MAF can be designed for phone and tablet form factors and

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packaged for Apple iOS, Google Android, or Windows from a single code base.

MAF leverages the power of Java, HTML5, and JavaScript and provides a visual and declarative development approach to provide a faster way to build on‐device mobile applications. MAF applications install on‐device, can work in both connected and disconnected mode, and can access device services as well a local SQLite database.

MAF includes a library of more than 80 components that can be used to create rich mobile application interfaces. Components are available for layout, data display, input, selection, and operation. Beyond the basic components, MAF offers data visualization com-ponents including charts, maps, gauges, and timelines. The components generate mobile‐ optimized HTML5‐ and JavaScript‐based user interfaces, and shield the developers from the need to code in those low‐level technologies.

Getting to Know Oracle JavaScript Extension Toolkit (JET)JET is a modular JavaScript development toolkit allow-ing developers to use as many or as few of the features as they desire. JET is targeted at intermediate to advanced JavaScript developers working on client‐side applications.

JET provides a collection of open source JavaScript libraries along with a set of Oracle‐contributed JavaScript libraries. These librar-ies make it simple and efficient to build

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applications that consume and interact with Oracle products and services, especially Oracle Cloud services.

The toolkit includes support for international-ization with 28 languages and more than 160 locales.

Understanding Mobile Application Accelerator (MAX)MAX is a feature of Oracle Mobile Cloud Service that enables nontechnical staff to build and deploy their own mobile applications. By using prebuilt commonly used interface patterns and components, MAX pro-vides the ability to design and build mobile apps that fully connect to backend systems, with just a few drags, drops, and clicks, and configuration of pages and com-ponents. It provides an instant, live view of the applica-tion even while editing, without requiring the typical development and release cycles.

MAX allows users to develop secure, user friendly, and engaging mobile applications that run on both iOS and Android phones and tablets by leveraging MAF and Oracle Mobile Cloud Service. It offers the ability to develop mobile applications from both desktops and mobile devices without the need to install mobile development environments. By giving new classes of professionals the power to create mobile applications, MAX reduces users’ ever‐increasing demands on IT for mobile access to data and processes.

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You can use MAF to further enhance mobile applications created with MAX. This capability provides continuity of development tools and framework between power users and develop-ers and increases collaboration.


Looking Ahead

In This Chapter▶▶ Understanding the new climate▶▶ Looking to IoT▶▶ Seeing the emergence of microservices▶▶ Making sure you have the right ecosystem

T he emergence of mobile has brought about many changes in today’s computing environment.

There’s no reason to believe that the pace of change will slow any time soon, so it’s important to look for-ward and try to plan for the future. This chapter looks at some important trends that you need to consider as you plan for your organization’s upcoming moves.

Seeing That “Mobile” Will DisappearWould you even think of asking anyone if they have an Internet connection these days? When was the last time you heard anyone use the term World Wide Web? In today’s world, those are things we pretty much take for granted.

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Mobile is rapidly moving in the same direction as Internet access or mention of the World Wide Web. That is, mobile access to the Internet and the web is becoming the expected norm. Soon, no one will even think about using the term “mobile” anymore. Mobile will be as transparent as owning a cell phone — it’s simply something that everyone has.

As mobile becomes transparent in our lives, you need to consider establishing a strategy that can support anything and everything on the horizon. As you look ahead, it’s crucial that the strategy you put in place incorporates an open and flexible platform so that the next big technological advance can easily fit into your solution. You may not know what’s coming down the road, but you need to be ready for whatever it happens to be.

Choosing the right solution vendor is crucial. Companies like Oracle make it their business to be ready for the latest technologies.

Considering the Internet of ThingsThe IoT is rapidly bringing billions of new, connected devices online at an ever faster rate. Those devices must be able to communicate if they’re going to do anything useful, and inevitably the IoT will converge with mobile.

Consider the example of smartwatches. They are cer-tainly IoT devices. Each of them communicates with an iOS, Android, or Windows smartphone to share infor-mation such as your heart rate, pulse, calories burned, messages received, and so on. Mobile apps that run on

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the smartwatch or on the smartphone are just like any other mobile app; they need various backend services to deliver full value.

Smartwatches are just the tip of the iceberg. Devices like connected thermostats, light-bulbs, refrigerators, and coffeepots are appearing in homes every day. Very soon, it will seem strange to not be able to access any device in your home or office from anywhere at any time. When you imagine the services your company can offer to meet this exploding market, you need to think big!

Moving to MicroservicesEnterprises have been creating Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) for years, but the simple fact is that they were not created with mobile in mind. These services often need to be shaped or slimmed down for mobile needs. The need to reshape these services has helped give rise to the term microservices, which refers to small, targeted services rather than the monolithic SOA services that enterprises previously created.

Available bandwidth can be an important issue for mobile. Users may want a weather report, but they likely don’t need a five‐minute video of a talking head detailing the complete forecast. When you’re designing apps, it’s important to consider what the mobile user really needs. Requesting tons of unneeded information over a mobile data link degrades performance. Even more to the point, many users are still faced with data caps, so excess data costs them extra money. A slow app that

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eats up a user’s data plan won’t have a long life of continued use.

Microservices represent a fundamental change from the way data has often been delivered. In a desktop environment, a database user typi-cally retrieves a complete record when making a query, even if only some of the fields are needed. In microservices, the query is more focused. Only the relevant fields are sent to the device. The smaller amount of data places a smaller burden on the device and the data connection, reducing bandwidth usage and improving device performance.

It’s All About the EcosystemAs you plan for the future, a strategic consideration is choosing the environment or ecosystem you’ll use as the foundation for your apps, backend, and all other related services. If you make the wrong decision, you may face escalating costs, difficult integration, or even the need to start over from scratch.

The Oracle Cloud ecosystem, shown in Figure 6‐1, is both broad and deep. It spans three elements:

✓ Software as a service (SaaS): Human capital man-agement, supply chain management, customer experience, industry solutions, enterprise resource management, and performance management

✓ Platform as a service (PaaS): Data management, app development, integration, business analytics, content, and process

✓ Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): Compute, stor-age, and network services

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Many vendors may offer solutions, platforms, or tech-nologies that are similar to Oracle’s, but Oracle’s strength and key differentiation is in its overall SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS ecosystem.

It might be tempting to try to assemble an a la carte collection of third‐party apps and ser-vices instead of sticking with a single vendor for a complete solution, but choosing this path introduces technical and management risks related to the interdependencies between sys-tems from varying vendors. Choosing a la carte means that you need a complete and highly technical understanding of every piece of the solution. In addition, when you deal with multi-ple vendors, you can be sure that each will insist that any problems you encounter are caused by someone else’s piece of the puzzle.

Figure 6-1: The Oracle enterprise mobility ecosystem.

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In addition to the overall Oracle SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS ecosystem, an important consideration is the Oracle partner ecosystem. The Oracle Partner Network is an extensive ecosystem of experienced Oracle technology experts that reach across multiple channels, industries, technologies, and services. Whether your needs are on‐premise, in the cloud, mobile, IoT, or all of these, the rich Oracle partner ecosystem can support your goals.


Key Facts About Enterprise Mobility

In This Chapter▶▶ Points to remember about enterprise mobility

T raditionally, For Dummies books end with a list of key facts from the book. Here are some key points

you should consider about enterprise mobility.

Mobile Means ProductivityAccording to Harvard Business Review, mobilizing the enterprise can increase overall staff productivity by 40 percent. Mobile is the new first screen — the new normal that every business must embrace.

Integration with Backend Systems Is a NecessityMobile apps are more than just a pretty interface. Integration to backend systems give apps the data and context that make them useful. Nearly all analysts

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agree: Integration is the heavy lift, taking up to 80 percent of the overall effort in developing a mobile app.

Mobile Requires Continuous DevelopmentMobile apps are never finished. Have you looked at your phone and seen how many apps have new updates? Eighty‐seven percent of enterprises update or release mobile apps every six months or less. Users expect regular updates that provide timely new fea-tures and improvements.

APIs Accelerate InnovationAn API‐first approach ensures agility and flexibility. By leveraging a catalog of mobile‐friendly APIs, mobile app developers are freed from backend complexities and service developers can provide consistent, managed interfaces to backend systems.

Go Beyond Mobile First; It’s Time for a Mobile‐Plus StrategyThe convergence of mobility, cloud, the IoT, and big data is happening across industries. It’s time to develop a mobile strategy that brings all these technol-ogies together. Today, the smartphone is our phone, computer, camera, entertainment center, map, per-sonal trainer, shopping guide, and much more. Who knows what the future will bring, but rest assured — it will be connected to mobile.


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