IBM announced that Gartner has positioned IBM as a Leader in the 2014 Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms. For the report, Gartner evaluated the IBM MobileFirst application development portfolio that includes a complete range of tools for developers to create, deploy, manage and secure mobile apps, on-premise or in the cloud.
According to Gartner, “Leaders must represent a strong combination of ability to execute and completeness of vision. In the mobile application development platform (MADP) sector, this means that Leaders not only are good at cross-platform development, deployment and management across the full life cycle, but also have good vision of the multichannel enterprise, support for multiple architectures and standards, a solid understanding of IT requirements, and scalable channels and partnerships. Leaders must provide platforms that are easy to purchase, program, deploy and upgrade, and which can connect to a range of back-end and cloud services, from the same vendor as well as third parties.”
A key component of the IBM MobileFirst portfolio, IBM recently announced several enhancements to the IBM Worklight platform to address the evolving needs of mobile app developers, including those increasingly incorporating analytics and cloud-based services to quickly build and deploy mobile apps. Other major components of the IBM MobileFirst portfolio include integrated software and services for mobile management, payments, security and engagement.
IBM Worklight allows enterprises to optimize mobile user experiences by supporting both native (via SDKs) and hybrid development models as well as tracking user experience with sentiment analysis and crowd-sourced feedback submissions. The platform helps developers integrate analytics, workflow and back-end systems, and ensure greater enterprise security and version management. IBM Worklight features mobile management and security capabilities for scanning apps to identify vulnerabilities early in development cycles and assist with determining problems with apps that have already been deployed.