Rich Sharples' Weblog

Red Hat Summit :: JBoss World :: Boston :: 2010

Posted on November 17, 2009February 16, 2015 by Rich Sharples

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Red Hat Summit :: JBoss World :: Boston :: June 22-25, 2010

I think I’ve just about recovered from the last JBoss World. Chicago is a fun place and I’m glad I finally got to spend some time there; next year it’s in one of my favorite cities – Boston. From the email :

A comprehensive agenda allows you the unique opportunity to move between both conferences, and learn about open source advancements through:

technical and business seminars

hands-on labs and demos

customer case studies

networking opportunities

partner displays

visionary keynotes

direct collaboration with Red Hat engineers

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Interested in presenting at the 2010 Red Hat Summit and JBoss World? Call for papers will open soon! Make sure to sign up for our “Call for Papers Alert List” on the 2010 Red Hat Summit and JBoss World website.

We’re looking forward to seeing you at the 2010 Summit and JBoss World in Boston, June 22 – 25, 2010.

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Releases / Lifecycles and other Product Management Miscellany

Posted on November 6, 2009February 16, 2015 by Rich Sharples

This week we GA’d JBoss EAP 5.0. As you’d expect from a new release there’s a long list of new features, capabilities and APIs and at some point I’ll talk about those some more. But the intention of this post is to give you an idea of some of the other less visible things that have happened with this release. EAP 5.0 marks a key milestone in the evolution of JBoss and demonstrates where we’re heading with the JBoss Platforms.

Performance

We set some pretty aggressive performance targets for this release. By comparison to JBoss EAP 4.3 we see an increase in peak throughput of about 20%, faster response times and more scalable HTTP connection handling. Performance is an ongoing activity and we’re continuing our investment in improving it in future releases. Performance at any cost is interesting to few outside of Formula 1 and Rocket Science and it isn’t a goal – we’re specifically interested in price / performance using a broad range of typical, real-life workloads.

Quality

Popular Open Source technologies (like JBoss AS – on which EAP is based) have always had the benefit of a large community who actively poke and prod. and push the software in different ways; who peer into the design and code and offer improvements.The result is some pretty decent, efficient and well polished code. But with the JBoss platforms we go one (or several steps) further. For EAP we had a long and active Early Access Program. It started back in April and is only now winding down as FCS customers complete their work. The diagram Below illustrates how we connect the AS and EAP lifecycle, the upstream (AS) GA essentially starts our EAP Early access program. This allows enterprise customers to start using a stable (though incomplete) release with the full backing of Red Hat Global Support.

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Obviously the diagram is a massive oversimplification – EAP is more than AS – it is the integration point for Seam, RESTEasy, the installer, mod_cluster and the Apache Native components.

With every release we also enhance our QE coverage; in the case of this release there was a bigger focus on Performance, Stress and Longevity testing using larger and more complex topologies and a broader range of workloads.

Lifecycle

We’ve also refreshed and restated our product update and support policy for all JBoss platforms – the hope is that it’s more clear, better aligned with other products from Red Hat and puts even more distance between us and our Open Source competitors.

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Ease of Use

A while back we kicked of an Internal initiative called “Andiamo” – I talked a little about it at JBoss World, and Mark wrote about it recently. While much of what we have planned around Operational and Development Ease of Use is planned for release beyond EAP 5.0, EAP 5.0 does lay the foundation for some of the things we need to achieve. The new Microcontainer provides us a very flexible and powerful toolbox that will allow us to build the middleware platform for the next decade. Specifically around ease of use, and as a taste of things to come we did provide a first cut of the new embedded console (it replaces the old JMX and Web Consoles). It has pretty limited functionality right now but I think it achieves the goal of making simple tasks simple to do.

What’s Next ?

The EAP Springtime Release (nominally EAP 5.1) is well underway and we’ll be pushing for even greater performance gains as well as defining the target platform for an upcoming Common Citeria (EAL 4+) certification.

We’re also underway with the EAP Lancer Release (nominally EAP 6.0) which will be the first major output of the Andiamo work as well as supporting the new Java EE 6 platform.

Onwards and Upwards.

Tab Sweep : JBoss World 2009

Posted on August 12, 2009February 16, 2015 by Rich Sharples

JBoss World 2009 is just under 3 weeks away and it’s still not too late to register. GEICO CIO Jess Reed will be one of the keynotes this year underlining that JBoss World is a great place to come and learn how other organizations just like you have saved money and improved performance and stability by moving to JBoss and Red Hat.

“GEICO is the 3rd largest passenger auto-insurer in the US and provides coverage for 9 million policyholders.”

“Reed will highlight GEICO’s deployment of Red Hat’s JBoss Enterprise Middleware and their use of open source middleware software for mission critical platforms”

You can even save money ($400) on saving money by registering before the event.

I’ll be at Red Hat Summit / JBoss World all week and have a couple of sessions talking about JBoss Enterprise App. Platform both present and future. If you’re around and want to chat – get in touch.

OpenJDK and Red Hat

Posted on August 6, 2009February 16, 2015 by Rich Sharples

Here’s an interview I did for DZone a while back about Red Hat’s involvement with OpenJDK.

Some additional useful links :

OpenJDK project
IcedTea project
IcedTea history
Gary Benson’s Blog
Andrew Hughes’ Blog
Andrew Haley’s Blog
Lillian Angel’s Blog
Mark Wielaard’s Blog

Bugs

Posted on August 3, 2009February 16, 2015 by Rich Sharples

I’m still amazed by the diversity of wildlife we see in North Carolina (and previously in California). I seem to remember very little about English wildlife other than Hedgehogs, Crows and the occasional Fox and numerous brown and grey bugs. Contrast that two these two colorful critters spotted in the last few days. The first are a pair (male and female) of Black and Yellow Garden Spiders – named for their Black and Yellowness and their location in the Garden no doubt.

The pictures are a bit crap as I had to poke my arm through the undergrowth and click.

The next encounter was a bit further a-field – North Topsail Beach to precise. This stunning Yellow Io Moth wanted to hitch a ride home with us. A bit of prodding made her open her wings before we put her safely on the ground.

Migrating to JBoss

Posted on July 27, 2009February 16, 2015 by Rich Sharples

An increasing amount of the bigger deals I see at JBoss come at the expense of our competitors like Oracle and IBM. Technology decisions that were made 5, 6 or 7 years ago are being reviewed and JBoss is the clear alternative

If you are looking to migrate from Weblogic or Websphere we have a growing list of migration success stories including :

KLM / Air France expect to save 11 million Euros by moving from Websphere and AIX to Red Hat and JBoss

Education Testing Services (ETS) reduced costs and boosted competitiveness by moving from Websphere and Solaris to Red Hat and JBoss.

Avis Rental Cars reduced TCO and increased flexibility by moving from Solaris and Weblogic to JBoss and Red Hat

JBoss EAP 4.3 Achieves Security Certification

Posted on July 6, 2009February 16, 2015 by Rich Sharples

A few weeks back JBoss Enterprise App. Platform 4.3 achieved Common Criteria Certification at Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 2+ – here’s the press release and here’s the evaluators updated page.

Common Criteria Evaluation is an internationally recognized standard that defines a framework for computer systems users to specify security requirements; for vendors to implement them and for third-party evaluators to test them. The Evaluation process ensures that this is all carried out in a consistent, formalized and standard way.

The Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) describes the “depth and rigour” of the evaluation not necessarily the security hardness. Though products certified at Level 7 (the highest) are likely to be deployed more demanding and secure environments than a product certified at Level 1 (the lowest). EAL 2+ means the products have been evaluated in collaboration with the vendor (eg. to provide development, design and test documentation).

What this means is that customers who care about security (who doesn’t ?) can be assured that JBoss Enterprise App. Platform 4.3 will meet commonly accepted, best practice security requirements. Even outside military and government use, who use Common Criteria as a benchmark, this evaluation should demonstrate Red Hat’s commitment to security. It’s a long and fairly involved process and the costs aren’t insignificant.

This is the first successful evaluation for a JBoss product but the JBoss Data Services Platform is currently in process and we’re already planning for a more stringent evaluation (higher EAL) for JBoss EAP 5.x.

JBoss Open Choice, Part 1 – JBoss Enterprise Web Server

Posted on July 4, 2009February 16, 2015 by Rich Sharples

It’s July 4th and we have an extended weekend in the US which is a good enough excuse to catch up on some blogging; at least until the Strawberry Margaritas start flowing. At Java One this year we announced an initiative called Open Choice which I blogged about previously. Fundamentally Open Choice is about broadening our footprint and giving customers what they want and moves us closer to supporting the whole applications infrastructure tier rather than just parts.

Open Choice isn’t some big, far-into-the-future vision thing it’s something we’re doing now. This year. Product-wise it consists of four offerings (where previously there was only one) and as we release them I’ll give you my perspective on why they’re important. Unfortunately I’m already a little behind – we’ve already delivered two products out of four and the third is in Alpha moving quickly towards Beta.

So let me use this post to talk about JBoss EWS 1.0 (Enterprise Web Server). EWS is basically a packaged, certified and tested bundle of Tomcat and Apache HTTP – the industry’s dominant Java web-container and Web Server respectively. We round out the bundle with mod_jk, APR and most importantly a management agent for JBoss ON. We currently support and certify on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Solaris with Windows coming next.

Providing JBoss ON management support is pretty important – it gives customer the ability to manage the application and web stacks easily and consistently using the same toolset. If you want to learn more – there is a free Webinar on July 14th at 2pm Eastern – more here.

The rationale for supporting Tomcat is that it is absolutely the dominant Java web-container and has become an important part of the corporate IT fabric. Tomcat has been popular for years but in the last two or three I’ve seen it evolve into a much more strategic platform for IT. Many customer I speak with have defined two distinct tiers of functionality – essentially a full Java EE stack and a lighter-weight Tomcat platform. By supporting both the dominant Java EE implementation (JBoss EAP) and Tomcat, combined with the ability to manage from a single tool – I think we can do a much better job of satisfying a much broader customer base than our competition. Here’s an (albeit unscientific) chart from a recent survey that demonstrates this well :

It’s also interesting to note that from this survey JBoss’ deployment share is more than Websphere and Weblogic combined.

OK, so JBoss EWS 1.0 is out and we have customers deployed or deploying some pretty large, strategic apps. but I’m already thinking about the next version (code named Cavalier). Some initial ideas for Cavalier are :

increasing platform support to include AIX, HP-UX and maybe other Linux flavours;
alternative Connection Pool implementations for Tomcat;
looking at a more recent version of Apache HTTPD;
possibly supporting mod_cluster.
soft-appliances to better support virtualized hosts.

Any other thoughts are always welcome – leave a comment or get in touch directly.

JBoss + eXo = Open Source advantage

Posted on June 11, 2009February 16, 2015 by Rich Sharples

This week, we announced a partnership with eXo – creator of the Open Source eXo platform. This strategic agreement allows us to integrate and distribute each others’ technology thus providing a mutual competitive advantage. This is no doubt good for both company’s products but I think the important point is that JBoss is 1. willing to do this and; 2. able to do this.

Taking the first point – “we’re willing to do this”. I think it shows a level of maturity in our organization that stands us apart from some of our Open Source competitors. The realization that not everything needs to be invented here; that there are smart people outside JBoss as well. There’s a tendency – call it NIH Syndrome, Professional Pride – to want to own and control everything; that’s true for every engineering and product company I’ve ever worked for. When taken too far – that can be at add odds with Open Source and diminishes some of its advantage.

Taking the second point further - “we’re able to do this”. Our business model is still pretty unique – we put less value on the bits and more on the whole experience. Control of the technology is less of a competitive advantage than some of our competitors because we have more to offer than the bits.

While proprietary software has some advantages – they’re all based on the premise that your technology is better than your competitors and keeping it hidden maintains some kind of advantage. This can only really be true half the time.

Red Hat has the knowledge and experience that allows us to collaborate, allows us to integrate and support technology that we don’t outright control. We’re also confident in ourselves, our brand and our business strategy – and that allows us to see the act of ‘enriching’ other technology (like Apache, OpenJDK, GWT, eXo, etc.) as a way to grow our footprint, capabilities and potential rather than as a competitive faux-pas.

Update :

Some more info on the agreement from eXo : About The eXo Partnership