Mobile app deployment is much more than just publishing an app to an app store or enterprise app catalog. It encompasses all the activities that must be performed on a mobile app after development is complete, up to and including publishing.
Mobile app deployment is challenging. Consider an organization that wants to deploy apps that are in the BlackBerry Dynamics container. When an app is developed by an internal engineering team or commissioned through an outsourced development team, it is easier to ensure that it is BlackBerry Dynamics-enabled: the app’s source code is accessible and developers can write integration code using the BlackBerry Dynamics SDKs. But when an app comes from a third party independent software vendor (ISV), things change. In most cases source code is not provided, which makes it impossible for the organization to ensure that the app has BlackBerry Dynamics mobile application management (MAM) integrated into it. How can you integrate BlackBerry Dynamics SDKs into an app without the source code?
A no-code integration service can help in such situations, but that still only solves part of the app deployment problem. There are other activities to be performed during the normal course of an app deployment. App scanning and analysis to find vulnerabilities in the app. App signing to validate the integrity of the code between when the developer created the app and when it reached the user. Both iOS and Android require apps to be digitally signed. App distribution to push the signed app through a distribution channel, such as a public app store or the BlackBerry UEM enterprise app catalog. And for each activity, multiple steps must be completed.
Those are just three examples of activities that could be performed in an app deployment. There are many others. The types of activities performed depend on the deployment use case. When you are talking about just one app, coordinating the execution of the activities needed for an app deployment can be manageable. But any reasonable sized organization will have multiple apps to deploy. A mobile app portfolio of 100 apps is not uncommon for organizations in the financial services sector. Coordinating all the various types of activities in the sequences required for successful mobile app deployments is incredibly difficult without a purpose-built solution. That’s where a deployment orchestration solution helps.
Orchestration coordinates the activities needed for a mobile app deployment through workflows, which are codified sequences of post-development activities needed to get apps to users. Orchestration with no-code integration ensures seamless deployment for BlackBerry Dynamics: automatic integration of BlackBerry Dynamics into a mobile app without requiring code to be written, signing of the app, and then distribution of the app. All with a click of a button.
Under normal circumstances, an update to an app would require organizations to allocate special resources to coordinate the sequence of activities needed to deploy the app again. That’s a cost. If the organization has contracted with a third party ISV to create a custom version of the app, there would be a cost associated for deploying updates to that custom version. But with orchestration and no-code those kinds of additional costs can be avoided, which translates into measurable increases in ROI.
That’s a definite win for BlackBerry UEM customers. No more SDK fatigue (face it, integrating security SDKs is challenging, even with extensive documentation and experience) even if getting access to an app’s source code were not an issue. And efficient and error free deployments are achievable because orchestration ensures that every required activity is executed in the correct sequence.
