IBM (IBM) and AT&T (T) are collaborating on an initiative to help businesses develop more network-efficient mobile apps. The companies believe that by integrating certain aspects of their mobile technology they can pave the way for enterprises to quickly and thoroughly test the performance of their applications on wireless networks to gauge and fix inefficiencies.

At the hub of the initiative is AT&T’s Application Resource Optimizer (ARO), a free, carrier-independent open source diagnostic tool, launched a year and a half ago for developers to analyze both business and consumer apps. IBM has combined ARO with its Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution—under its MobileFirst banner—to accelerate the delivery of quality software.  IBM’s idea with MobileFirst is to catch the mobility wave as it crests to the enterprise where the real money is—in the transformation of businesses to fully mobile enterprises, spanning application development, security, analytics and cloud-based services.

According to the companies, the integration of AT&T and IBM technology will enable enterprises to conduct comprehensive testing and analysis of their apps’ network and battery usage on mobile devices and quickly make necessary changes. In that way, for IBM the ARO solution fits with its DevOps mobile strategy in that it facilitates faster and more frequent software delivery with a quicker response to customer input.

“Businesses are challenged with the need to provide rich mobile applications, while avoiding device power and network usage pitfalls that frustrate and turn away customers,” said Kristof Kloeckner, IBM Rational software general manager. “With today’s news, we are advancing our DevOps strategy in support of better mobile application delivery,” he said.

According to AT&T, ARO provides direct feedback to developers about how their app is behaving on any network, allowing them to test and deliver apps with improved battery life, faster response times, and more efficient network handling. ARO is deployed by more than 1,500 developers, with users experiencing a 35 percent reduction in excess data usage and apps that run up to 60 percent faster. AT&T said that ARO saved more than 500TB of data in its first year.

“ARO tackles a fundamental coding challenge developers face today–finding and fixing performance and power bottlenecks that detract from a great user experience,” said Carlton Hill, AT&T developer services vice president. “ARO can help developers create apps that conserve battery life, load pages faster and consume network resources in a smarter way, all of which improve the customer experience.”

IBM earlier collaborated with AT&T on mobile development when it debuted its MobileFirst portfolio in February. Developers can augment their mobile apps by using IBM’s Worklight mobile application platform to access the carrier’s APIs in the cloud. 

IBM is no stranger to mobile development and mobility services, laying claim to 270 wireless-related patents, 10 mobile acquisitions in just the past four years and the experience of working with 1,000 customers to transform their businesses to mobile enterprises.