Cloud Application Architecture Patterns

Chapter 8. Cloud Application Clients

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A cloud application must provide consistent functionality to users accessing the application from a variety of devices.

Today’s front-end client world is challenging. Your user community will often be spread across multiple devices from multiple vendors, operating across several different potential technology platforms such as smartphones, tablets, or laptops. When you want to provide the best user experience on each device and need the interface to be best-in-class on each platform, it is difficult to build a single application in one form factor that serves the diverse user community at all points in the interaction lifecycle.

Perhaps the best example of this that we have encountered took place at a major airline. In this airline, there are three major vehicles for customer interaction; the airline’s mobile application, the airline’s website, and the check-in kiosks available at the airport. What we saw is that the same users would sometimes use all three ...