Sencha Space – Solving BYOD with Cross Platform Management to Build and Deploy Secure Mobile HTML5 Apps

With more and more enterprises adopting BYOD policies, the challenge for IT departments has become how to manage personal and professional applications on the same device, making sure company information is secure without infringing upon personal privacy. The importance of this issue will only grow as mobility becomes an even greater fixture in the enterprise.

At Sencha, we’ve worked to solve that challenge with Sencha Space, a recently launched managed HTML5 runtime platform that empowers application development teams and IT professionals to manage the complex process of delivering secure apps to thousands of users in a BYOD world. Users can launch any mobile web app, or HTML5 app in a secure, managed environment – able to run on any device, operating system or browser. With HTML5 and Sencha Space, developers are no longer restricted by the limitations of consumer browsers or complexities of packaged apps. Similarly, Sencha Space allows for managers to optimize the cost and productivity of their teams.

The Sencha Space platform provides a rich SDK that gives HTML5 apps access to native OS and device features such as the camera, GPS, and accelerometer. The SDK also provides direct access to most of Sencha Space’s internal features, including an encrypted file system, encrypted SQL database, and the app invoke API, to name a few.  

The invoke API is a particularly interesting innovation; it facilitates communication between applications within Space. The Space development team expects that applications could be implemented and deployed in a highly modular fashion using this simple, but powerful mechanism. When multiple applications need to access common functionality, each of these applications can invoke a smaller single-purpose application that addresses a specific user need. For example, suppose you were writing a field services application that needed to capture a photograph or chat with a dispatcher. Rather than write this functionality into your app, you could invoke the camera app or the instant messenger for this purpose from within the context of your application. This model promotes more modular application development, code reuse, and renders applications more maintainable in the future.

The cloud-based management console enables administrators to author and enforce policies for security and access control, to instantly revoke access to apps, and remotely wipe the app’s data from a device without touching personal data or other application data. It provides a powerful engine for analytics and auditing to help with real-time monitoring and compliance reporting.  

Sencha Space is a natural extension to Sencha’s existing portfolio of HTML5 development frameworks and tools; now you can deploy, manage, and secure applications. However, Sencha Space does not require developers to use Sencha frameworks or tools to build their apps; developers can continue to use their preferred frameworks, including applications built using AngularJS, JQuery, Ember, Dojo and any other Javascript framework out there. This flexibility helps development teams to preserve their HTML5 development investments and still capture the benefits of Sencha Space. Sencha believes this solution can significantly reduce the cost and complexity of mobile application development by eliminating inefficient parts of the workflow. For instance, by eliminating the need to re-write an application and maintain a separate codebase for each new platform, Sencha Space can help to slash the cost of multi-platform, multi-device support.  

Similarly, by eliminating the need to package an HTML5 app into a native binary with a tool like PhoneGap or Cordova, app development teams no longer need to focus on repackaging their apps and redeploying them to an app store, freeing up that time for more productive uses. Because applications in Sencha Space are always up to date, it relieves the burden of frequent app updates on end-users. By providing API access to native device capabilities, Sencha Space provides a rich application user experience without the drawbacks of today’s native or hybrid app development processes.

To try out Sencha Space, please visit:  http://www.sencha.com/space and click Get Started