Today’s workforce requires real-time remote access to corporate data. For example, field service technicians must update their work tickets as soon as they complete a task so that the company’s scheduling software can efficiently allocate resources. Field sales agents need to update customer accounts as they go from one customer site to another. The challenges in addressing these use cases revolved around
- Multiple devices and platforms that needed to be supported
- Potential security issues in having corporate data on unprotected mobile devices
- Proprietary and expensive solutions that could not meet enterprise SLAs
- Lack of a true enterprise platform that could support the availability and scaling needs of such use cases
To fulfill the needs of the mobile workforce, we are happy to announce the general availability of Sun Java System Mobile Enterprise Platform (MEP) 1.0. MEP enables mobile access for a range of off-the-shelf and home-grown enterprise applications for a variety of mobile devices. At the core of MEP is an open standards-based platform consisting of Sun GlassFish Enterprise Server, MySQL and Java ME to provide reliable two-way data synchronization with security, device management, and offline access.
Standard use cases for MEP include field service, logistics, and sales force automation, allowing the mobile workforce to connect easily and securely to many enterprise applications. MEP can operate in an Occasionally Connected Computing (OCC) environment, using client caching to allow mobile workers to access and update their data, even when they are off the network.
Key features of MEP
■ Out-of-the-box connectivity to many enterprise application platforms
■ Support for a wide variety of mobile devices
■ Offline access to data when there is no network coverage
■ Encryption and data fading/wiping, which extend enterprise application security to mobile devices
■ Support for over-the-air provisioning of mobile clients
■ Tools and templates that simplify the development and customization of mobile applications
■ Based on open industry standards and robust and scalable Java technologies
We invite you to download MEP for a free evaluation at http://www.sun.com/software/products/mep/get.jsp.
You can also sign up for a Proof-of-Concept
(POC), or subscribe to a full service plan, where Sun and our
partners will provide the expertise to deploy MEP in your production
environment.
For additional information, go to the MEP product page and the MEP documentation.
Stay
tuned for more blogs from the Sun MEP team, with a deep-dive into MEP
features, configuration, and use cases as well as benefits to the
customer, in the coming days and weeks.