SAN MATEO (02/03/2000) - MANY CORPORATIONS now consider handheld devices the standard link between enterprise data and mobile workers. But supporting these devices, including making sure their users have access to the corporate data they need, places an extra burden on IT staffs. Furthermore, this burden will increase as more handhelds find their way into the enterprise in the coming years. How can you extend corporate data to mobile users while keeping support costs to a minimum?
AvantGo Inc.'s Enterprise solutions -- Enterprise Publisher 1.0 and Enterprise Interactive 3.2 -- present efficient, low-overhead options for delivering corporate information to Palm devices and Windows CE units, offering large organizations a high return on investment. Enterprise Publisher is a new client/server product for deploying intranet and Web content to handheld users.
Enterprise Interactive, an updated and renamed version of AvantGo's Enterprise 3 client/server software, goes beyond Enterprise Publisher to support two-way communications between handhelds and back-end databases or applications.
Both solutions allow mobile professionals to access corporate information or applications via a familiar Web browser interface while providing IT groups with a straightforward and centralized way to administer that access. Sure to be a hit with users and administrators alike, AvantGo's Enterprise software earned an overall score of very good. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should point out that InfoWorld is among the AvantGo.com content providers.)On the goBoth versions of AvantGo Enterprise use the same server kernel. Therefore, Publisher gives you a cost-effective way to start distributing corporate reference material. Later, when you want to tie handheld users into corporate databases, you can quickly upgrade the Publisher server to Interactive without redoing any configuration settings.
Setting up the Publisher server under Windows NT required little technical know-how and about five minutes of time. The installer automatically created the SQL database and connections (for user data). Additionally, the software recognized my Windows NT domain server and users so I didn't have to create a new set of accounts.
The concept behind serving information channels (Web pages residing on internal or external Web servers) to handheld users is simple. Using a browser interface, I defined which pages each group or individual would receive when they synchronized their Palm or WinCE devices with my AvantGo server. The final steps involved loading the AvantGo browser application on each handheld, specifying the AvantGo server name, and performing a synchronization.
In this test, I easily sent a customized set of internal news stories, pricing updates, and organization announcements to each handheld user. Furthermore, I configured my server so various co-workers were automatically subscribed to different industry news and financial channels available on the Internet. Users can also subscribe to outside channels directly using AvantGo's free service, AvantGo.com.
For enterprises, Publisher's advantage is that, from one spot, administrators can specify content and who receives each channel. The server does the rest, such as ensuring that updated files replace outdated material at the next synchronization. Moreover, I found data to be very compressed on the handheld -- a few hundred Web pages consumed just 150KB of memory.
Get interactive
AvantGo Enterprise Publisher is an efficient way to get Web content to mobile users. But I think many organizations will want to consider Enterprise Interactive because it lets you deploy applications such as sales automation and inventory tracking. Earlier versions of Enterprise were able to handle database requests and other input from handheld users through HTML forms.
Version 3.2 adds two very important features: SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption (for secure transactions) and JavaScript support.
To evaluate these enhancements, I deployed various Web pages that deployed JavaScript to perform calculations, error checking, and other standard functions. On both a Palm OS-based handheld (a Palm V) and a Windows CE-based unit (a Hewlett-Packard Jornada 680), my JavaScript pages worked as designed.
And I successfully exchanged data with a secure database using SSL encryption.
AvantGo's Enterprise software is a very good choice for any organization needing to extend its intranet or business applications to handheld users. To the system's existing functions, such as multiple online and offline connectivity options, Enterprise Interactive 3.2 adds better security and improved APIs and JavaScript for developers. The economical entry-level version, Enterprise Publisher 1.0, is a good alternative if you need only one-way content delivery.
Mike Heck (mike_heck@infoworld.com) is a contributing editor and manager of electronic promotions at Unisys Corp., in Blue Bell, Pa.
THE BOTTOM LINE: VERY GOOD
AvantGo Enterprise Publisher 1.0 and AvantGo Enterprise Interactive 3.2Business Case: AvantGo Enterprise reduces the total cost of ownership of handhelds in the enterprise through centralized management of mobile data, applications, users, and devices. A single server supports thousands of users, reducing hardware costs.
Technical Case: AvantGo Enterprise Publisher is an efficient means of deploying intranet content to handheld devices. Enterprise Interactive adds two-way communications between handhelds and back-end databases, as well as SSL security and JavaScript support.
Pros:
+ Provides simple, Web-based administration+ Features high-performance, multithreaded server design+ Offers 56-bit or 128-bit SSL encryption+ Supports HTML forms plus JavaScript+ Provides APIs that allow developers to connect to back-end databasesCons:
- None significant
Cost: Publisher: $75 per user; Interactive: $150 per userPlatform(s): Servers: Windows NT 4.0 and Microsoft Windows 2000; Linux (Kernel 2.0); Sun Solaris 2.5.1, 2.6, or 2.7AvantGo Inc., San Mateo, Calif.; (650) 638-3399; www.avantgo.com