Simple answer: no. But if you’re a developer building the next great consumer app in a hurry, it probably won’t hurt. MBaaS (“mobile backend as a service”) solves some pretty prickly problems for the start-up developer. MBaaS offerings like Appcelerator, CloudMine, FeedHenry and StackMob deliver the basic components for storage, messaging, notification, user management and so forth that mobile developers need, making it easy for developers to set up and operate the backend for their applications.

But let’s say you’re not a bad-ass consumer app developer. Imagine you’re a mild-mannered enterprise dev looking to make a solid app for your field sales organization. What does MBaaS do for you? Maybe the right question is what does MBaaS not do for you? Answer: it doesn’t get you access to the one thing you need as an enterprise developer – enterprise data.

Enterprise apps need data like plants need sunlight. It could be customer records, documentation, pricing information, inventory levels or a myriad other things. But that data is stuck in the enterprise, inside of SAP this and SharePoint that and database the other. No amount of simplifying interactions with AWS will get that information into your hands to build the super-compelling apps employees need access to.

Enter mobile middleware like Layer 7’s SecureSpan Mobile Access Gateway. Getting the stuff that’s locked inside the enterprise into the hands of devs is a middleware problem. It’s about information sharing. It’s about opening up but in a very targeted manner. MBaaS has some great ideas for making a mobile developer’s life easier. Enterprise devs want the same benefits but with the added benefit of access to enterprise data. I joined Layer 7 from a prior gig at RIM to help that happen. Stay tuned for details.

The International SOA, Cloud + Service Technology Symposium takes place next week in London and the track titles remind me how much SOA has changed in the last 10 years. Mobile and cloud use cases have revolutionized the way we architect, deploy and manage SOA infrastructures, resulting in forward-looking tracks such as “New Service-Orientation Practices & Models” and “Emerging Service Technology Innovation.”

For the Layer 7 perspective on these service technology trends, come see our presentations throughout the week. On Monday, I’ll be speaking about how traditional SOA technologies such as the enterprise service bus (ESB) need to adapt to an evolving IT landscape. On Tuesday, our CTO Scott Morrison will be giving a closing keynote about “The New Governance”.  Wednesday brings an API Management Workshop at the Canadian High Commission, hosted by Layer 7 along with our customer MoneySupermarket.com and analyst firm RedMonk.

Layer 7 is a Founding Partner at the Symposium and we’re excited to welcome a who’s who of analysts, vendors and enterprises to join in the conversation. These illustrious attendees have helped to define the industry and revolutionize enterprise IT – and I’m looking forward to insightful speakers and great networking opportunities. For a more intimate conversation, stop by our booth (#110) to see a demo or discuss your SOA, cloud, API or mobile use cases.

London has shown an incredible amount of enthusiasm for sporting events this summer, from the Olympics and Paralympics to the Tour de France, which was won by a Brit for the first time in its history. Let’s keep that excitement going – see you at the Symposium!

More and more businesses are moving applications and data to cloud-based infrastructure. The integration models and vendor offerings that facilitate this are pretty diverse (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, vCloud, AWS, OpenStack… ) but there is a common thread – the need for APIs with which these services can be managed and maintained.

The importance of APIs continues once the infrastructure is in place. Applications in the cloud can expose their own APIs, opening data access to partners, mobile devices or other cloud technologies. This raises questions around how enterprises can effectively leverage cloud APIs while addressing the security and management concerns that will inevitably arise.

I’ll be discussing some of these concerns when I take part in Layer 7’s latest Tech Talk on Tuesday September 4 at 9am PDT/12pm EDT/5pm BST. The subject matter will be Publishing Cloud APIs and – like all our Tech Talks – this interactive Q&A will be broadcast live on the Layer 7 Facebook page and via Livestream.

Here’s how you can join the conversation:

• Tweet using the hashtag #Layer7Live
• Email techtalk@layer7.com
• Check in & Chat through Facebook

Feel free to ask questions around:

• Securely exposing APIs from a cloud-based solution
• Orchestrating APIs for value-added interfaces
• Enforcing access control and threat protection across hybrid cloud environments

I’m looking forward to chatting with you. Don’t forget to add the Tech Talk to your calendar. See you on Tuesday!

VMworld 2012 kicks off at the Moscone Center in San Francisco this week. At the event, VMware will be making some exciting announcements around the delivery and management of public and private clouds using automation technologies.

Rapid deployment and onboarding has always been a key requirement for Layer 7 solutions, which is what initiated our strong partnership with VMware years ago. These announcements will showcase the next step in that evolution.

Layer 7 will be presenting at the VMworld Solutions Exchange and we’d love for you to stop by to talk about how we take advantage of the latest VMware technology. Come discuss your use case and find out how we can:

• Protect and manage vCloud APIs
• Securely expose APIs from a vCloud-based solution
• Govern infrastructures based on the vCloud Architecture Toolkit (vCAT)
• Orchestrate APIs for value-added interfaces
• Dynamically provision vApps from policy based on SLAs
• Enforce access control and threat protection across hybrid cloud environments

We’ll also be giving demonstrations of our VMware Ready certified products, including the SecureSpan Mobile Access Gateway and Layer 7 API Portal. In case you can’t catch us on the west coast, we’ll also be at the VMware Forum in Toronto on September 20.

Quite a bit has been written about how the Cloud is altering the landscape for platform, software and infrastructure providers but not as much has been said about what all this means for developers. I recently decided to find out for myself by going on an “all-cloud diet”. In practical terms, this meant I used a sealed netbook or smartphone to do all my work.

Therefore, I had to do all the things an active developer regularly has to do (coding, debugging, testing etc.) from a device that has no appreciable hard-drive space and does not allow the installation of any customer software. In essence, I was on a strict diet of browser-based and plug-in based tools and services reachable via an Internet connection.

In relatively short order I was able to find browser-based editors (even ones that support line-by-line server-side debugging!), tools for managing data stores and code repositories. Furthermore, I was able to post test scripts for execution/review and even deploy my projects to a wide range of server providers – all from my browser.

Along the way, I discovered that I had an easier time collaborating online with colleagues in other locations and was better able to take advantage of the most recent releases of new services and tools (since there was no “install” or “update” I had to manage). And – of course – I was more mobile in the process.

Not all programming languages, runtime environments and server profiles are represented in the cloud. And there are still many details to work out in order to make assembling a full-featured “cloud tool chain” easy, reliable and cost effective. Nevertheless, I can see that it is a possibility and I have met people who are working to make that possibility a reality.

My advice to developers would be: Conduct your own experiments; try out your own “cloud-only diet” and see what you learn. Even if you decide that not all the pieces you need are available, you may still discover there are ways to leverage cloud-based tooling to reduce barriers, add flexibility and increase productivity in various aspects of your development efforts.

I’ll be exploring these issues in greater depth when I present a talk titled Programming with the OSS “Cloud Stack” at the CloudDevelop show in Columbus, OH on August 3.