Taking Control of your IoT APIs

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Ishu Verma, IoT technical evangelist, Red Hat, Inc.

At its core, IoT is all about data: data from devices, commands to devices, integrating IoT data with other data to gain insights. The data sources include devices, enterprise applications, vendor/partner systems, service providers and customers. The point-to-point integration between these various systems is not feasible; hence, APIs become the primary means of communication between these disparate systems. A clean architectural approach is the one suggested by the agile integration concept. APIs are central to this concept, which allow data to be shared securely between internal and external systems. The opening of APIs enables a company to provide uniform data and transaction interfaces to internal and external developers, partners, and customers, for improved data access and control of remote resources. By providing well-defined APIs, developers can use data in a programmatic manner; e.g., app developers can get access to IoT devices data without worrying about the underlying hardware interfaces. Considering the importance of APIs for IoT, it’s imperative for an organization to manage these APIs effectively. In fact, APIs have been called a fundamental enabler of IoT however, without an effective API Management solution, API sprawl can easily lead to catastrophe.

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The Role of Agile Integration in Open Banking

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Manfred Bortenschlager

In the mid 90s, Bill Gates famously said that “banking is necessary, banks are not.” There is certainly a lot of truth in this statement. We all need banking services in some shape or form. But who delivers these services to us is secondary. In fact, Accenture concluded in a study conducted in 2016 asking over 30,000 people in 18 countries that if the tech titans like Google, Amazon, or Facebook would offer such services, 31% of the respondents would switch to them. This clearly imposes a significant threat on traditional banking institutions.

Another challenge that banks are facing worldwide are the increasing demands for regulatory compliance with respect to openness. Such regulations include, for instance, Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) in Europe, the Amendment Bill to Japanese Banking Law in Japan, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) with the Unified Payment Interface, UK’s Open Banking standard by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), or the Open Banking Regime by Australia’s Federal Government. Banks approach these regulatory challenges in many different ways. Some see it as a serious business threat and only do the bare minimum for compliance; others see it as an opportunity and with smart investment start building banking platforms for the future.

Our suggestion for building the banking platform of the future resides on the principles of agile integration, which is an architectural approach centered around application programming interfaces (APIs) and API management. At its core, agile integration resides on the three pillars: distributed integration for greater flexibility, containers for the ability to scale better, and managed APIs for re-usability and hence speed. We described the details in an earlier post.  

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The 3 benefits of RHOAR, by Thomas Johnson, Shadow-Soft

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Luis I. Cortes. Senior Manager, Middleware Partner Strategy - @licortes_redhat

The rise of microservices and containerized environments comes with its own set of demands and challenges for developers, who are being asked to quickly and reliably bring new features to market and adhere to strict best practices.

Thomas Johnston from our partner Shadow-Soft recognizes their pain points and offers the three benefits that RHOAR offers to speed up microservices development.

Read more here: Microservices slowing you down? Streamline the orchestration process with Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes (RHOAR)

Red Hat JBoss EAP – a platform for current and future workloads

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Cesar Saavedra, technical marketing manager, Red Hat, Inc

tqvarnst

There is this myth that Java EE containers aren’t fast and agile enough to build modern applications. Although this may be true for some app server vendors, it’s definitely not the case for Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (JBoss EAP).  JBoss EAP is a modern application platform that includes a modular structure that allows service enabling only when required, improving startup speed.

With this in mind, we decided to run a comparison between JBoss EAP and other technologies that are touted to be the best for cloud-native applications. Not to our surprise, here are the results:

Note: The performance tests above were produced without any performance optimization, and if you run the tests yourself, you might get different results depending on your hardware and memory. The conclusion from the above results is that JBoss EAP is not slower and does not use more memory than the other runtimes.

When comparing a JBoss EAP instance running Java EE Web Profile app, a JBoss EAP running a Spring application, Tomcat and Spring Boot, you can see that in our tests, JBoss EAP running Java EE Web Profile was faster, used less memory, and had the highest throughput under load. You can find the entire test suite and source code at the following location:

https://github.com/tqvarnst/eap-vs-tomcat-vs-spring-boot

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It’s Time To Accelerate Your Application Development With Red Hat JBoss Middleware And Microsoft Azure

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Derek Mitchell

The role of applications has changed dramatically.  In the past, applications were running businesses, but primarily relegated to the background.  They were critical, but more operational in the sense that they kept businesses running, more or less.  Today, organizations can use applications as a competitive advantage.  In fact, a well-developed, well-timed application can disrupt an entire industry.  Just take a look at the hotel, taxi, and movie rental industries respectively.

This can put more pressure on IT leaders.  Not only do they have to continue to run their daily business as efficiently as possible, but may also need to liberate resources to help drive innovation.  In other words, “do more with less.”  As a result, many are looking at ways to increase productivity and some are turning to modern development tools such as DevOps, containers, and microservices.  When making strategic decisions such as these, the technology, and infrastructure, should adapt to the needs of the business. Both now, and in the future.

When talking about infrastructure that can evolve as the business evolves, the answer is often the cloud.  However, when assessing application development technology that provides flexibility and enables IT leaders to better anticipate needs, it becomes a little more vague.  This is where Red Hat and Microsoft can come in.

Microsoft and  Red Hat have teamed up to offer Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (JBoss EAP) on Microsoft Azure.  JBoss EAP is a modern application server that is designed to provide a modular cloud-ready architecture, powerful management and automation, and developer productivity. It offers support and deployment flexibility for Java EE, whether on-premise, virtual, or hybrid cloud environments. In addition, JBoss EAP is designed to fulfill the demands of modern applications in the areas of process, infrastructure, and architecture by delivering support for DevOps, hybrid cloud, and microservices, respectively.

JBoss EAP is  the cornerstone of Red Hat’s focus on and commitment to enterprise application development, and serves as the foundation for Red Hat’s portfolio of cloud-ready middleware products.  A portfolio that includes technology business rules (BRMS) and business process management (BPMS) capabilities. Combined with Microsoft’s enterprise-grade cloud computing platform, collectively, these solutions can deliver a diverse, open, lightweight, enterprise capable application development platform.

SCSK Corporation is a Japanese system integrator that designs and implements Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. The company used Red Hat JBoss BRMS to develop its own IoT platform, which it offers on Microsoft Azure, that is designed to filter, store, analyze, and visualize data sent from devices and sensors. Organizations can analyze large volumes of IoT data to help make better  business decisions. This requires a more reliable, scalable, and robust platform.  When asked if JBoss BRMS was chosen because of its complex event processing (CEP) engine, Naoaki Kato, Engineer in the SCSK Middleware Unit responded: “Yes, but there was one more important factor: the fact that it is a Red Hat product. Red Hat products have a strong track record in the enterprise market, and Red Hat offers great support.”

I had the privilege of  discussing the partnership with numerous attendees at Microsoft Ignite 2017 and believe that the partnership has been well received.  To wrap with another quote from Naoaki Kato, SCSK: “The Microsoft–Red Hat partnership was really great news for the enterprise market.”

* The use of the word ‘partnership’ does not mean a legal partnership or any other form of legal relationship between Red Hat and Microsoft.

New Documentation with JBoss EAP 7.1: Performance Tuning Guide

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lucascostiredhat

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7 (JBoss EAP) is optimized for performance out-of-the-box. However, a frequent request that we receive from customers is for advice on how to further monitor and tune their JBoss EAP environment for even better performance.

To meet this customer demand, the JBoss EAP Customer Content Services team has produced a new Performance Tuning Guide that is now available with JBoss EAP 7.1.

We have worked with multiple teams inside Red Hat to produce this guide, including software, performance, and quality engineering, as well as Red Hat consultants, solution architects, and support engineers.

The new guide covers high-level JBoss EAP performance advice, including:

  • Monitoring JBoss EAP performance
  • Diagnosing performance issues
  • Tuning JBoss EAP subsystems and components, including:
    • JVM tuning
    • EJB subsystem
    • Datasources and resource adapters
    • Messaging subsystem
    • Undertow subsystem
    • IO subsystem
    • JGroups subsystem
    • Transactions subsystem

We’d love to know what you think of this new guide! The best way to send us your feedback on documentation is to create a new discussion on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.1 Availability

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Cesar Saavedra, technical marketing manager, Red Hat, Inc

The release of Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.1 (JBoss EAP) is now available. JBoss EAP is Red Hat’s middleware platform, built on open standards and compliant with the Java Enterprise Edition 7 specification, which includes a modular structure that provides service enabling only when required, improving startup speed, memory footprint and performance. Included in this minor release are a broad set of updates to existing features. In addition, the release provides new functionality in the areas of security, management, HA, and performance, such as a new additional security framework that unifies security across the entire application server, CLI and web console enhancements, and load balancing profile, respectively. Also included are additions to capabilities related to the simplification of components such as a new additional EJB Client library, HTTP/2 Support and the ability to replace the JSF implementation as well as the JBoss Server Migration Tool to migrate from previous versions of JBoss EAP to JBoss EAP 7.1. With these new capabilities, customers can continue to reduce maintenance time and effort, simplify security, and deliver applications faster and more frequently, all with improved efficiency.

Continue reading “Red Hat JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 7.1 Availability”

How to Address the Challenges of a Pervasive Integration Strategy

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Manfred Bortenschlager

Earlier this months at the Gartner ITxpo event, Massimo Pezzini presented the challenges that must be addressed by a pervasive enterprise integration strategy. In summary there are four types of hybrid challenges (see Massimo’s diagram below).

Gartner-HiP

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The State of Microservices Survey 2017 – Eight trends you need to know

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Cesar Saavedra, technical marketing manager, Red Hat, Inc

During the fall of 2017, we conducted a microservices survey with our Red Hat Middleware and Red Hat OpenShift customers. Here are eight interesting trends discerned by the results:

1. Microservices are being used to re-architect existing applications as much as for brand new projects

There seems to be a strong emphasis in the market by technology vendors for positioning microservices as being only for new projects.  However, our survey reveals that organizations are also using microservices to re-architect existing and legacy applications.

Sixty-seven percent of Red Hat Middleware customers and 79 percent of Red Hat OpenShift customers indicated this. This data tells us that microservices offer value to users all along their IT transformation journey — whether they are just looking to update their current application portfolio or are gearing up new initiatives. So, if you are only focused on greenfield projects for microservices, it may be a good idea to also start evaluating your existing applications for a microservice re-architecture analysis. Microservices introduce a set of benefits that our customers have already started seeing, and they are applying these benefits not just to new projects but to existing ones as well.

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Red Hat partners guide your journey to cloud-native development

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Luis I. Cortes. Senior Manager, Middleware Partner Strategy - @licortes_redhat

The big question is always, “Do we car manufacturers learn to become tech companies more quickly than a tech company learns to be an automotive player?”

That is quite a statement. When a leading car manufacturer worries about being disrupted by a technology company, you know something big is going on. No wonder so many companies are talking about disruption these days.

There is a big transition taking place. And it is not just about competition. Or innovation. Or value migration. Or the creation of new markets. It is about the fact that every company is becoming a technology company, and only those that embrace this will survive, thrive, and shape our world. Software is at the core of this change, and increasingly it appears that the cloud is where much of this is going to take place.

Customers often come to us asking, “How can I be faster? How can I innovate and lead, instead of repeat and follow? How can I do that with enterprise-grade security, reliability and resiliency?”

A good part of the answer lies in using the cloud to power business models and help run, migrate, or scale existing applications, or develop new cloud-native ones. Red Hat has offered platforms to run customers’ applications and infrastructure in the cloud for a number of years. Today, we are taking another step forward by offering cloud-native application runtimes and frameworks, fully supported and enterprise grade.

Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes offers a curated selection of popular cloud-native application runtimes and frameworks that are well-suited for enabling cloud-native application development.

In the words of Joe Dickman, senior vice president of Vizuri, “Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes establishes a foundation for building services for hybrid and multi-cloud application and systems […] in a myriad of environments using their preferred tools.”

With Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes, organizations can innovate directly in the cloud, from inception to production; running in the industry’s most comprehensive Kubernetes platform, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, and in a cloud provider of choice.

James Chinn, CEO at Shadow-Soft, adds: “With Red Hat’s latest support of Wildfly Swarm, Spring Boot, and NodeJS, our customers can feel confident building and scaling containerized workloads on OpenShift. Openshift deployed in a public cloud gives our customers the flexibility and agility to deploy an enterprise and container framework quickly and easily.”

When customers develop an application strategy for moving to the cloud, they have to choose the right runtimes, based on factors such as existing skills or the right framework for the application they need to create.

“Historically, one of the biggest challenges has been the roadmap necessary for change in legacy environments,” says Chris Hart, chief technology officer of Levvel. “OpenShift Application Runtimes helps simplify that transformation and lowers the effort and risks to getting started with cloud-native development.”

They need to decide which applications to move to the cloud and how to keep evolving and innovating. What applications get a lift-and-shift (rehost) versus reshape or re-architect? Should they create “fast monoliths” or decompose them, totally, or partially, as microservices? If so, what is the right framework for the job?

Erik Melander, EVP of solutions at Kovarus, expands on this: “Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes […] reduces friction by packaging and supporting a curated set of open application runtimes and letting developers make the right choice for cloud-native development.”

It is also important for them to learn about containers and how to implement DevOps methodologies and culture. Development and operations teams may need to learn new skills and change the way they work.

We are happy to have a large network of partners around the world with the expertise to support our customers along the exciting path of going to the cloud. From the top level strategy and innovation consulting, down to the most detailed testing and infrastructure set up. From defining and helping implement an application modernization strategy, to helping implement and deploy a microservices architecture.

Red Hat solution systems integrators and solution providers can help select the right option based on the technical objectives, existing skills or strategy. They can also help customers prepare for the challenges of complex microservices architectures and equip an organization to adopt DevOps practices and culture.

Start your journey here!

Supporting quotes:

“For our customers that are developing applications to create and sustain competitive advantage, developer productivity is an ever-present challenge. We are excited to see Red Hat addressing this problem with the launch of Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes, which reduces friction by packaging and supporting a curated set of open application runtimes and letting developers make the right choice for cloud-native development.”
Erik Melander, EVP of Solutions at Kovarus

“We’re excited about Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes because it simplifies the adoption of beneficial technologies for our enterprise customers. Many companies know they need to achieve higher release velocity and improved reliability using approaches like microservices architecture and more modern development and operations tools. Historically, one of the biggest challenges has been the roadmap necessary for change in legacy environments. The OpenShift Application Runtimes help simplify that transformation and lowers the effort and risks to getting started with cloud-native development. We’re looking forward to seeing this accelerate our customers’ success.”
Chris Hart, Chief Technology Officer, Levvel

“We are excited about the announcement of Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes as it signals Red Hat’s continual commitment to meeting our customers where they are today and positioning them for success in the future. With Red Hat’s latest support of Wildfly Swarm, Spring Boot and NodeJS, our customers can feel confident building and scaling containerized workloads on OpenShift. Openshift deployed in a public cloud gives our customers the flexibility and agility to deploy an enterprise and container framework quickly and easily. And like any public cloud deployment, you can start small and scale elastically as workloads demand.”
James Chinn, CEO, Shadow-Soft

“Organizations that are investing time and resources in cloud-native architectures must look at leveraging containerized workloads to provide a robust, flexible and reliable infrastructure that can respond quickly to changing customer needs. Red Hat OpenShift Application Runtimes establishes a foundation for building services for hybrid and multi-cloud application and systems in a programmable way that provision and decommission infrastructure and applications resources in a myriad of environments using their preferred tools.”
Joe Dickman, Senior Vice President, Vizuri