IBM Worklight...with a B2E application center

March 7 2013


OK dipping a toe in the water of writing about a product :-)

Two weeks ago we launched IBM MobileFirst -- a set of six solution portfolios unifying IBM's market-leading mobile enterprise story. One of the portfolios is an application platform, and the centerpiece of that is IBM Worklight. In my first month with the team, what I've learned is that Worklight addresses the need for reusability in mobile apps better than any other approach. While we offer many ways to deliver mobile web applications, Worklight is designed for web, hybrid, and native apps, across the entire spectrum of mobile devices.

I'm already carrying two sample Worklight apps around on my iPhone -- one is a banking app, the other a consumer insurance solution. Interestingly, I didn't install them from the Apple app store; instead, they came from an IBM application center. In a business-to-enterprise scenario, Worklight's built-in secure direct distribution vehicle becomes a critically important component of app delivery. App distribution is controlled within the organization.

In the 3-minute YouTube video posted above, the concept of the Worklight Application Center is explained.

The Application Center, and the model of being able to directly distribute apps, is important in the enterprise where app prototyping and deployment may take place in rapid cycles. There's no need to worry about submission to public app stores, nor worry about your internal apps being available externally. The Application Center provides all the mechanics, and operates as simply as the official app stores do.

One of the key value propositions of Worklight is code reuse. We expect companies that adopt Worklight to do so as a platform, building out a set of apps. Using the Application Center, deploying them is straightforward, and a worthwhile infrastructure component.

Ed Brill | Savannah, GA USA Category:  Worklight  Add/View Comments [11]

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  1. 1  David Hablewitz http://thenotesguyinseattle.com | 3/8/2013 9:35:39 AM

    1. Very cool concept: Open my own store and control it myself.

    2. Very clear and concise video explaining it. Perhaps one of the clearest messages I've seen IBM produce.

    I see this fitting very well into SmartCloud for Social Business too.

    Can you tell us what it's running on? Websphere?

  1. 2  Richard Schwartz http://www.poweroftheschwartz.com | 3/8/2013 4:09:37 PM

    Can you explain what you mean by "a business-to-enterprise scenario"? It doesn't seem to be a common use term. You're in the top ten Google hits with "business to enterprise" quoted followed by B2E non-quoted, and so far I haven't found any of the other hits to be particularly enlightening.

  1. 3  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 3/8/2013 5:34:23 PM

    @1 it can run on WAS or Tomcat, Derby DB2 MySQL or Oracle... { Link }

    @2 while B2E is usually "business to employee", we're broadening that a bit to apps meant primarily for use within an enterprise, or deployed in the context of an enterprise. So primarily the equivalent of "intranet/extranet" apps. I'm surprised, I hear B2E in this new job all the time, I guess we should be clearer about what we mean. Thanks for helping me refine...

  1. 4  Vitor Pereira http://www.vitor-pereira.com | 3/10/2013 5:04:13 PM

    Speaking of code reuse, is Worklight able to surface XPages yet? Or will it be able in the future?

  1. 5  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 3/11/2013 12:59:59 AM

    @4 there was a session on Worklight + XPages at IBM Connect, but admittedly I didn't make it. Trying to get slides and a direct answer to your question.

  1. 6  Vitor Pereira http://www.vitor-pereira.com | 3/11/2013 8:07:47 AM

    Same here, didn't make it either. Looking at the slides now, it seems there are some choices available now.

  1. 7  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 3/14/2013 4:12:25 PM

    An answer I was provided...

    Worklight includes the ability to surface a remote website. This is the approach used with WebSphere Portal and should also work with XPages on a Domino server. You can look at this article

    https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/mo-aim1208-worklight-portal-1/index.html

    to see an example of how this is done with Portal. We hope to have a similar article for XPages and Worklight later this spring. You should take a look at AD404 - NSF2IPA: Delivering Your Existing IBM Domino Application as a Mobile App (replay here)

    { Link }

    which introduces you to options for mobilizing Domino apps and gives an example of using the new Domino REST services with Worklight.

  1. 8  Vitor Pereira http://www.vitor-pereira.com | 3/20/2013 8:40:49 AM

    Thanks Ed, those were the slides I was looking at. I have to dig deeper but I hope we're not limited to using the new Domino REST services and can surface existing apps developed using the mobile controls, otherwise it's rip-n-replace.

  1. 9  Iain Devine http://m.jdsports.co.uk | 3/23/2013 12:01:59 PM

    Built with Worklight.. its a mobile site at the moment... but with the framework.. it could easily be an app.

  1. 10  Andy Baxter  | 3/27/2013 5:34:58 AM

    Nice. Expensive though. Who can afford $160,000 to $200,000 USD to implement this though? Not my 2000 user company. :(

  1. 11  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 3/27/2013 9:43:20 AM

    There are a lot of pricing models for Worklight, and your IBM representative can work through those with you to make the price tag affordable. Device-based pricing might be more reasonable, e.g.