Mobile Reach Overview

Introduction

The Mobile Reach Mobility Platform is a best-in-class mobile enterprise application platform that allows organizations to easily extend enterprise applications to mobile users across a variety of mobile client devices and form factors. The Mobile Reach software supports a wide variety of operating systems and technologies, including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows and Windows Mobile (WIN/WM), as well as RFID and NFC enabled mobile devices.

Mobile Reach is a middleware system that connects existing enterprise applications to wireless applications. It uses Internet technologies, such as XML, to provide a user interface on mobile devices and enables synchronization either between two devices or between a device and an enterprise application.

Mobile Reach components are installed on the server machine and client devices. The device communicates to a back-end database through the Mobile Reach applications, the Mobile Reach communications layer, and the database adapter to retrieve, cache, modify, and update records from the database.

Components

Mobile Reach consists of the following components:

  • Mobile Reach Gateway: Provides a passthrough between the database and the client devices. Installed on a machine referred to as the Gateway server.
  • Mobile Reach Client: Allows the device to access Mobile Reach applications and plugins on the Gateway server. Installed on the device(s).
  • Mobile Reach AppStudio: Builds or modifies Mobile Reach applications. Usually installed on the Gateway server, but can be installed on a separate Windows machine as long as the machine has TCP access to the Gateway server.

The Gateway server, client, and applications can be installed on the same or different machines. Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) is required to download the Mobile Reach software to a Windows Mobile device and must be installed on the same machine as the Mobile Reach clients and applications.

Minimum Gateway Hardware or Virtual Machine Requirements

  • CPU: 1 GHz Dual Core or faster
  • RAM: 2 GB
  • Storage: 2500 MB available disk space

Supported Gateway Operating Systems

  • Windows 7 Service Pack 1
  • Windows 8
  • Windows 8.1
  • Windows Server 2003
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
  • Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2
  • Windows Server 2012
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Windows Vista Service Pack 2
  • Windows XP

Communication Flow

Client devices will initiate a TCP connection over port 1211 (configurable) to the Gateway. The Gateway loads the appropriate plugin and converts the client request to calls to the target enterprise application.

If the devices operate on a cellular network outside of the corporate network, and the Gateway is inside the corporate network, one of the following communication methods is recommended:

  • Port Forwarding
  • DMZ
  • APN setup via Cell Carrier
  • VPN

Supported Mobile Operating Systems

  • iOS 6 or greater
  • Android 4 or greater
  • Blackberry 10 or greater; Legacy 5 or greater
  • Windows Mobile 5 or greater
  • iOS/Android (Tablet and Phone)

Supported Connectivity Methods

The devices support various forms of connectivity when communicating with the Gateway:

  • iOS/Android/BB10:
    • Cellular
    • Wifi
  • Windows Mobile:
    • Cellular
    • Ethernet Cradle
    • USB Cradle
    • Wifi

    • Supported ServiceNow Versions

    • All versions through Helsinki

    For additional information, go to ServiceNow Solutions.

    Supported Remedy Versions

    • 7.0 – 9.0

    For additional information, go to Mobile BMC Remedy Solutions.