In September, we covered five tools for building mobile enterprise apps. And in November as part of our round-up of enterprise mobile app store, we looked at Apperian, another way to create enterprise mobile apps. Since that time three more ways to build mobile apps have hit our radar: Bitzer Mobile, Webalo and Worklight.
Bitzer Mobile
Bitzer Mobile just launched yesterday. It virtualizes enterprise applications on mobile devices. Managers select which features from enterprise applications they want users to have access. Users download the Bitzer client and connect to the remote applications. The Bitzer client virtualizes select elements and displays them in a format optimized for the users’ device.
By keeping user’s work related data within the Bitzer client, the client can be wiped remotely without damaging the user’s personal information.
Webalo
This one has actually been around for a while, but we’ve never covered it. Webalo offers a hosted service or virtual appliance for mobilizing enterprise applications without coding. Instead of creating new native apps, users download a Webalo client. Managers use a wizard to select which data from existing enterprise applications and Webalo delivers that information to the client. The client is available for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone. Symbian or other Java-enabled smartphones and Windows Mobile. An iPad client is in the works.
Webalo boasts some high profile clients already: GE, Time Warner and Wells Fargo.
Worklight
Worklight is a cross-platform enterprise development platform. It enables developers to create cross-platform applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript and connect securely to enterprise back ends. Administrators can also remotely administer applications. Android, BlackBerry and iOS (including the iPad) are currently supported.
The company recently announced version 4.0 of its enterprise mobile application development platform. The new version allows developers to blend native code and HTML within the same application.
Conclusion
A Kelton Research survey sponsored by Sybase recently found that 90% of IT managers are planning to implement new mobile applications in 2011. With that level of interest, these types of solutions are more important than ever. However, another solution that should be considered is creating entirely Web-based applications. Forrester recommends taking this approach instead of developing native application development whenever possible.
