WorkLight (News - Alert), a provider of a mobile application platform for smartphones, tablets and laptops that helps enterprises to efficiently develop, optimize, integrate, publish, run and manage applications securely for the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry (News - Alert), iPad, desktops and the Web, has announced to introduce native iOS support for backend enterprise connectivity and secure authentication.
With this support, developers and IT professionals will be able to easily integrate new iPhone (News - Alert), iPad and iPod apps with enterprise systems, and to connect previously existing native applications with enterprise infrastructure as well.
The WorkLight platform can now provide support for downloadable smartphone applications that can be developed using native as well as web-based technologies and tools, which enables the developers in building their solutions with maximum flexibility and efficiency.
In the words of Ron Perry, Chief Technology Officer at WorkLight, companies looking to offer smartphone applications face significant challenges, particularly with regard to data connectivity and integration with authentication infrastructure. Perry continued that with this latest addition to its mobile application platform, the company is offering new ways of addressing these critical issues to more effectively build, run and manage successful iPhone and iPad apps.
Enterprise Connectivity layer of the WorkLight Mobile Platform features a number of functionalities such as a native library that enables connectivity to backend enterprise and cloud services through the WorkLight Server and infrastructure for running applications at scale and with fast performance including caching, clustering and load balancing support. Additionally, it allows the developers to flexibly integrate with authentication mechanisms, so that custom authentication can be ensured on the client side, such as two factor authentication or keylogger protection.
Functioning as a gateway between backend systems and end-user devices via an adapter framework, the WorkLight Server supports a range of basic and advanced technologies including HTTP, REST, SOAP, SQL, LDAP, JMS, SAP (News - Alert), SharePoint, HTML scraping and custom adapters. The software platform by WorkLight also enables the companies to reuse the enterprise connectivity layer for applications developed for other smartphones beyond the iOS platform.
In June, WorkLight announced that during a survey of 300 banking customers in the U.S. conducted by the company, 48 percent of respondents had indicated that they are not happy with the smartphone application offered by their banking institution. The study further revealed that customers are just not happy with the user experience and features offered by the banking applications, above all they are having serious security concerns.
Raja Singh Chaudhary is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Raja's articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by Erin Monda