BA Doesn’t Build Planes and You Shouldn’t Build an App Container

In the financial industry, HTML5 has rapidly become the new standard for real-time desktop applications. A second and related trend has also emerged. Instead of using web browsers, financial firms are often deploying their HTML5 code in application containers or app containers. HTML5 app containers eliminate the dependency on a user’s web browser and enable a native, outside-the-browser experience that is crucial for front-office applications.

Firms looking to deploy their HTML5 applications in an app container are faced with a basic build vs. buy decision: should they build their own Chromium app container or use OpenFin? For those who choose the build option, there are a number of frameworks that make the job easier, the most prominent of which is Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF). Other options include Awesomium and NodeWebkit.

While these frameworks make it easier to work with Chromium, they each have their downsides and most importantly, they each leave you to build 80-90% of your app container from scratch. Credible estimates usually have a small team of experienced developers working for a year to build a production-worthy first version app container with CEF.

For non-technical managers (and even many technical ones), it’s hard to quantify the effort involved and sometimes an analogy is helpful. Imagine the app container you are trying to build is a jumbo jet and your apps are the passengers. In this analogy, CEF is the airplane’s engine. You’re not going anywhere without an engine but your airplane also needs a cabin, wings, propellers, wheels, seats, lighting and much more.

Would you build an airplane yourself if you could source a great commercial engine? British Airways wouldn’t and neither would any other airline. They know there’s no competitive advantage in building their own planes. Instead they compete on brand, network, airport real estate, service and price among other categories.

Similarly, for banks and financial service providers, there is no competitive or strategic advantage in building your own Chromium app container. Firms compete on their brand, apps, content, analytics, liquidity, risk models, user base, service and price among many other categories, not the container facilitating the deployment.

Do CEF and other Chromium frameworks help reduce the cost of the build? Yes, but they still leave you to do most of the work yourself and they provide no support along the way. If you need a complete, industrial strength HTML5 app container with an enterprise-grade SLA, please give OpenFin a try. Contact us at info@openfin.co.