Interop Goes Mobile: 9 Hot On-The-Go Solutions From The Show Floor

Working together with the Mobile Business Expo, Interop New York 2008 offered a glimpse at a host of hot solutions enterprises are turning to for their mobility needs. Here we look at nine mobile solutions that had the show floor a buzz.

BlackBerry Or Bust

BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) detailed its Mobile Voice solutions, which tie together desk phone and smartphone functionality, giving users one contact number and one voicemail box whether in the office or on the go. The solutions also give IT fewer management headaches.

And while integration with the corporate PBX was BlackBerry's key message, users flocked to the booth to play with the latest smart phones, including the new BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 and the soon-to-be-released BlackBerry Bold (shown here).

Like its Canadian rival, BlackBerry; Palm also offered a look into its portfolio of mobility solutions. Also, like BlackBerry, Palm representatives fielded more questions about its smart phones and devices, in this case the recently released Palm Treo Pro.

If a typical WLAN won't meet your needs, Thrane and Thrane offered its Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) solutions to the Interop crowd.

Thrane and Thrane showed off its Explorer line of BGAN terminals. BGAN is a voice and broadband data mobile communications service by means of Inmarsat satellites.

Shown here are the Explorer 500 (right) and Explorer 700 (left) models.

Agito Networks stormed Interop and the Mobile Business Expo with the next release of its RoamAnywhere Mobility Router, an enterprise FMC (fixed-mobile convergence) solution designed to boost worker productivity while reducing cellular costs.

The new RoamAnywhere packs in a host of industry firsts, including Secure Remote Voice for secure VoWLAN, Dual Persona for converged business and personal contacts and calling in one device, Dynamic Least Cost Routing, and the broadest PBX and Symbian/Windows Mobile handset support available.

Cortado showed off its Cortado Corporate Server for BlackBerry, which lets users access documents and print from nearly anywhere all via a BlackBerry smart phone.

The solution lets users copy files from the network to a BlackBerry, save them to corporate drives and retrieve them from the network. Users can also organize folders, print, fax, preview and view any document in its original format.

Here a user shows the Cortado Corporate Server in use on a BlackBerry device.

ESRI showed the Interop faithful its ArcGIS Mobile solution, a geographic information system software platform that enables organizations to deliver GIS data and services from centralized servers, offering real-time access to information over wireless networks to a range of Windows Mobile devices. ArcGIS Mobile is powered by ArcGIS Server and lets users deploy mobile GIS applications to increase accuracy and improve GIS data across organizations. The solution enables real-time data editing from the field and seamless mobile integration.

Psion Teklogix showcased a spread of its handhelds and mobile computers at Interop and the Mobile Business Expo this week.

One of its most recent releases, the Ikon Rugged PDA (right), is a handheld data capture device that combines an integrated imager or scanner with the standard color camera. The Ikon offers fully-integrated voice and data communications, eliminating the need for multiple devices. It offers anytime, anywhere, wireless voice and data with simultaneous Wi-Fi, cellular (GPRS/EDGE or HSDPA) and Bluetooth connectivity options. The Ikon also offers a full VGA display, making it more suitable for complex applications with sophisticated graphics.

Varaha Systems unveiled its uMobility solutions, a set of products that work with single mode (cellular only) and dual mode (cellular and Wi-Fi) smart phones and can be deployed in a complementary fashion.

The products offer business-grade voice, VoIP and IP multimedia handoffs, independent of the user's carrier, network type or business communication system. uMobility delivers Service Aware (SQA) handoffs for seamless transfer from Wi-Fi to Cellular and Cellular to Wi-Fi, including automatic network availability intelligence.

The line also features enterprise-grade security through mobile VPN to protect sensitive business communications while working remotely, power management to extend talk time for dual mode devices, and standards-based implementation of interworking with SIP, Wi-Fi, GSM/CDMA, UMTS/3G, EVDO, 1XRTT, EDGE, and WiMax among others. The software resides on the user's mobile device and a server adjacent to the IP PBX, including hosted configurations.

Celio Corp. showed off its REDFLY Mobile Companion (pictured), an enabler of mobile virtualization. Celio can provide the larger screen and keyboard that enable workers to expand their smart phones into fully-functioning laptop PCs. Through their phone and REDFLY Mobile Companion, users can connect remotely to a desktop or server, allowing users to keep data on the computer they are logging into. Users can work in mobile applications as if they're on a PC.