Salesforce today released App Cloud Mobile, a no-cost addition to its software arsenal that the company says integrates previously separate elements for the first time so that both coders and non-techies can create apps that run on iOS and Android.
“There’s a huge need to help our customers build mobile apps,” said Brian Goldfarb, senior vice president of App Cloud marketing, in an interview. “IT faces big challenges in delivering them and keeping them secure. App Cloud Mobile brings together the best of our products with our business-to-consumer technology into one integrated package.”
The App Cloud Mobile SDK provides ready-made, customizable log-in screens — typically a challenging portion of an app to create. It unifies several Salesforce pieces, including:
- Point-and-click programming tool Lightning App Builder, intended for use by non-techies, whom Salesforce calls business users.
- Coding environments Force and Heroku, which permit the use of several development languages, intended for use by IT staff and developers.
- Wave Analytics and Lightning Snap-Ins.
To those, it adds new back-end services for security, data integration and scalability. Security features include user identity, two-factor authentication, encrypted offline database and transaction security policies. Data can be accessed from a variety of databases using REST APIs. And, because of their cloud infrastructure, the company says the apps created using the system can be quickly scaled.
Salesforce said Unilever, a multinational consumer-goods company, recently used App Cloud Mobile to built six apps in six months to streamline approvals, team workflow, workplace logistics, employee feedback, market intelligence and the dissemination of company news.
Editor’s Note: Salesforce is a GeekWire annual underwriting sponsor.
