Santiago Pericas-Geertsen's Blog

Sun Java Mobile Enterprise Platform 1.0

It's been several months since my last blog. The reason is that I have been deeply involved in this new product called MEP (Mobile Enterprise Platform) and I really couldn't say much about it. However, version 1.0 has just been released, so it's time to open the blog gates. See announcement here for additional info about MEP.

MEP is a framework for developing mobile enterprise applications. Based on robust synchronization technologies, it enables enterprise users to synchronize enterprise data (from back-end systems like Siebel or SAP) with their mobile devices. In a nutshell, MEP enables enterprise users to carry the enterprise in their pockets.

MEP is completely based on open standards, including OMA DS (formerly SyncML), J2EE, CLDC, CDC and MIDP. It runs on, and it is bundled with, the best application server (yeah, yeah, I'm a bit biased): Glassfish. An enterprise application built using MEP is comprised of three main components: a J2ME client, the MEP gateway, and a back-end system. The back-end system could be practically anything: e.g., an EIS system such as Siebel or SAP, a relational database system, a datastore in a file system, a datastore accessible via a web services interface, etc., you get the point --the only requirement is for the back-end system to support CRUD operations. All it is needed is an MEP connector to access the datastore. As part of the platform, MEP also includes what we call adapters which enable MEP connectors to access popular EIS systems. These adapters originate from another Sun project, namely, the Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite (JavaCAPS).

MEP is a very interesting product because it appeals to enterprises as much as it appeals to mobile phone carriers. MEP flexible architecture enables what we call 1-tier and 2-tier deployments. In the 1-tier deployment, both the MEP gateway and the back-end system reside within the same (firewalled) network.

In the 2-tier deployment, the MEP gateway communicates using SOAP-based web services to an MEP connector running on the second tier (i.e., on a different instance of Glassfish). This connector is assumed to reside in the same network as the back-end system.

The 2-tier deployment can be appealing to mobile phone carriers. In particular, mobile phone carriers can host and maintain the MEP gateway, thereby providing a new service to their customers.

As you can imagine, there's a lot more to say about MEP. This is just the beginning. Here is the official product page. Stay tuned for more blog entries about MEP in the upcoming weeks!

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