🔒 Disclaimer / Notice

This article is purely based on learning, exploration, and research into MDM, EMM, and API publishing technologies during my internship and personal projects.

No production-level deployments, enterprise bypassing, or unauthorized development for business gains were performed.

All experiments were done in local/demo environments and with educational intent.

The purpose of this write-up is to share knowledge and document my journey, not to promote or replicate enterprise deployments without proper authorization.

---

🏁 Starting Point: My Internship at Mercurial Minds

During my internship at Mercurial Minds (M.M), I was placed in the Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) / Mobile Device Management (MDM) department.

At first, I wasn’t fully clear on what these systems were about — tools like Samsung Knox and other enterprise EMM platforms felt overwhelming.

But gradually, I discovered that EMM/MDM isn’t just about managing devices — it’s a core product area that many leading software companies invest in.

This was my first real exposure to enterprise-level technology, beyond the world of small-scale software projects.

---

🔍 Diving Deeper: From Confusion to Curiosity

As I got hands-on experience with an EMM/MDM portal on a demo server, my curiosity grew. With some research, I found that the portal was powered by the Entgra IoT Server.

Instead of stopping there, I pushed myself to self-learn:

1. Studied how the portal behaves behind the UI.
2. Explored the REST APIs that power MDM workflows.
3. Looked into open-source repositories on GitHub.
4. Broke down how Java, JDKs, and Maven tie together in Carbon Kernel–based projects.

At first, things like API gateways, publishing flows, and claim-based authentication seemed abstract. But slowly, the architecture started making sense — I realized these weren’t just “APIs,” they were enterprise connectors between identity, security, and data.

---

🧩 Connecting the Dots: From Internship to My Own Projects

While experimenting, I even evaluated Entgra UEM 6 (using my Alpha Tech business email). That opened doors to WSO2 API publishing features, which taught me that:

✅ APIs aren’t just direct DB calls — they’re published assets, controlled, secured, and monitored.

✅ A single published API serves all users/tenants, while tokens and claims decide whose data flows through.

✅ Enterprise systems solve the question:

“How do I ensure each user only sees their devices, even though everyone is calling the same endpoint?”

---

🧠 Applying It: Building My Own System

This was a big shift. I wasn’t just thinking like an intern anymore — I was thinking like:

• A developer building scalable solutions.
• A founder shaping my own product direction.

I applied these lessons in my own project — Alpha Connect Hub (under Alpha Tech):

• Built a Node.js backend for device management.
• Used WSO2 API publishing to expose those APIs securely.
• Integrated OAuth2 / JWT-based access tokens to ensure each request is linked to a unique user identity.
• Experimented with building a Java backend to simulate MDM/EMM workflows on a Carbon Kernel stack.

---

⚙️ Lessons From the Struggle

This journey wasn’t smooth:

• Running large Carbon Kernel projects on macOS was painful.
• Debugging JDK versions, Maven builds, and UEM server issues tested my patience.
• Figuring out why GET /devices worked only via the API Gateway (and not as a direct DB call) forced me to learn about invoker endpoints, token claims, and mediation policies.

I learned that one API is published for everyone, but the token’s claims (like user_id) make it unique per user.

Every error — from a 401 auth failure to a class-not-found exception — taught me something new.

Through this struggle, I learned the real difference between project-level coding vs. enterprise-level development:

Projects require coding skill.

Enterprise systems require architecture, patience, and persistence.

---

🌐 What’s Next

I’m now preparing to set up a Linux server environment, since Carbon Kernel–based systems run more stably there compared to macOS.

My roadmap is clear:

1. Build enterprise-ready backend systems.
2. Combine MDM, EMM, and API publishing into scalable, secure products.
3. Use this foundation to grow Alpha Tech into a company that builds solutions, not just apps.

---

💡 Final Reflection

Looking back, this wasn’t just an internship. It was the spark that helped me:

• Transition from learning projects → building products.
• Move from coding → thinking enterprise.
• See technology not just as tools, but as part of a bigger ecosystem of identity, security, and scale.

My journey into enterprise development has only just begun. 🚀