It's time to go mobile

Mobile computing is a significant force that is fundamentally transforming the way people and enterprises use applications and perform their daily work. Until recently, most of the buzz about mobile focused on the consumer and consumer applications. However, the enterprise is rapidly catching up with mobile application development. Until recently, very few middleware platforms have been available to help organizations build true enterprise-scale mobile applications. This is about to change.

 

With the acquisition of FeedHenry, Red Hat can now offer enterprise mobile application platforms. Enterprises can build, deploy, and manage open, flexible, and scalable applications for mobile devices, with the power and flexibility of Red Hat's open source infrastructure, cloud, and middleware solutions.

 

Without a doubt, mobile computing will change the way in which enterprises conduct business. Employees, partners and customers will expect to engage with the enterprise from their iPhone, Android device or iPad. IDC estimates that more than 1.2 billion smartphones will ship in 2014, nearly a 20% growth from 2013. For the first time, there will be more smartphones in use than desktop and laptop computers. For organizations to survive and be relevant to their stakeholders they will need to build rich, mobile applications that access information and process assets that live behind the firewall and are scattered across disparate service providers. These new mobile applications will be systems of engagement, helping stakeholders engage with the enterprise but leveraging other systems to store critical financial, manufacturing, or human capital data. But what software platforms are available to build these large-scale mobile applications? This is where Red Hat comes in with FeedHenry.

 

Mobile computing for the enterprise is different than Angry Birds. Enterprise mobile applications need a backend platform that enables the mobile user to access data, build backend logic, and access corporate APIs, all in a scalable, secure manner. Enterprise applications need special mobile services for security, notification, and data synchronization. FeedHenry provides a cloud-based mobile application platform that enables companies to build these rich mobile applications, while complementing Red Hat JBoss Middleware’s enterprise capabilities.

 

Mobile applications for the enterprise are changing the way organizations conduct business. Aer Lingus created a scalable mobile application that enables customers to book flights, check status and conduct payments. A leading catering supply company built a mobile application that enabled their global sales force to search product and customer information. A major European railway provider created a mobile application that enabled 22,000 maintenance workers to report emergencies and track assets while in the field - all from their smartphones. All of these companies were able to create these large scale applications with integration with their backend systems because of FeedHenry.

 

FeedHenry expands customers’ opportunity to leverage Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud strategy. It becomes an integral part of our strategy for Red Hat's xPaaS services on OpenShift, our award-winning Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for both public and private clouds, providing enterprise mobile services as one of a range of “xPaaS” services. These mobile application services are intended to complement other xPaaS services such as integration, mediation, and business process management, and create a truly enterprise-class PaaS platform. FeedHenry also complements Red Hat's rich portfolio of middleware services such as application servers, integration servers, NoSQL data caches, and business process automation, that are at the heart of enterprise applications. It enables the applications built with these technologies to extend to mobile use.

 

As enterprises build the applications of the future they will first think of the ubiquity of mobile and the efficiency of cloud as the primary requirements for these applications. Red Hat is here to help deliver these new types of applications with Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform, OpenShift, and now, FeedHenry.

 

We are thrilled about this new addition, and look forward to working with the FeedHenry team!