Advantage SUP with native application?

[#1]

Hi experts,

I have a doubt. If I develop a native application with SUP, I have to create the synchronization, I have to create the connection, I have to create all... so, what are the advantage with SUP versus another software for develop native applications?

Thanks in advance,

Regards,,

[D_Olderdissen · Accepted solution]

There are actually three parts where SUP does bring additional value to the table

1. Client development
2. Middleware services
3. Backend integration

1. Client development

Let's ignore SUP HTML5 container for this discussion. In the native space (development with Xcode, C# etc) you get the complete mobile communication stack + a mobile DB for your device. That is a huge benefit when you consider you got do develop all of that by hand:

• Local data storage and data consistency (e.g. making sure your user is not changing data in a table that you are currently synchronizing)
• Security - End2End, easy to handle local data encryption, data vault for secure secret storage with configurable PW strength, content wipe, etc
• Communication services - e.g. you just tell the api to sync a table. The SUP stack establishes the connection, the security, handles packet loss, returns error codes, does the change detection, etc
• Local DB - the Ultralight DB we ship with SUP is one of the fastest mobile DB's available on the market.
• The SUP sync engine is one of the best you can buy for money - e.g. fire 100.000 records onto an iPad in six minutes over a 3G connection.
• ...

2. Middleware Services

SUP is intended for enterprises that have more than one or two mobile apps. For them manageability of users + apps and integration is vital as those are cost drivers in the daily operation of such a middle ware system.

• Central logging, auditing and management
• Integration with Afaria MDM
• Integration with LDAP, SAP SSO, Network Edge Authentication etc
• One platform for all mobile apps - online, offline, HTML5, B2C, B2E etc
• One security approach and concept, enterprise level security (we do have banking customers)
• Load separation (configurable caching system)
• Scalable
• Hostable

3. Backend integration

Support for all major backend data sources

• JDBC
• BAPI
• ODATA
• REST
• WebService

When you think about putting all of this together manually for one project, ok fine. The initial cost of such an effort are ok and most likely some what cheaper than buying SUP. But if you look at the maintenance of your custom project (new client version, version deployment, web service changes, security audits, issue handling, support etc) and then look at the fact that many customers need to do many mobile applications, you know the benefit of SUP. Because if you try to increase the number of apps, of different mobile device types etc your individual approach will become very expensive and most likely unmaintainable very quickly.

🙂

[koehntopp · Accepted solution]

Thanks - exactly what I had started writing, just much more complete

Frank.