OpenShift Upgrade Automates App Deployment
The latest version of Red Hat's OpenShift Enterprise has come out along with a pair of new services focuses on integrating applications with existing datacenter infrastructure.
With the latest release of OpenShift Enterprise, the open source vendor also it is adding a private integration platform-as-a-service offering to deliver cloud-based services application integration. The new services, JBoss Fuse and JBoss A-MQ, represent upgrades to Red Hat's on-premise integration and messaging offerings. New features include support for AMQP 1.0 (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol) along with a library of connectors and the ability to manage processes.
The new services are part of what is described as xPaaS, or a range of specialized middleware services that can be offered as a platform-as-a-service.
The JBoss xPaaS application and development services are intended to blend platform-as-a-service flexibility with middleware capabilities. The applications development process in a hybrid cloud infrastructure is said to be improved by combining the middleware stack with PaaS technologies to promote unified application development and operations.
The cloud-based integration and messaging tools also are intended to eliminate the traditional infrastructure setup procedures that slow the roll out of applications. The new tools aim to deliver self-service capabilities that would give developers more control over their application backbone.
Coupled with the JBoss xPaaS offerings, Red Hat said OpenShift Enterprise 2.2 aims to ease deployment of virtualization and other cloud technologies through integration with it hybrid cloud management tool, CloudForms. The upgrade enables integration of identity and DNS management platforms into datacenters. Red Hat said OpenShift Enterprise deployment could now be automated and controlled by CloudForms.
Red Hat stressed that the combination of the latest version of OpenShift Enterprise and JBoss would ultimately help speed the development, integration and operation of applications in a hybrid cloud infrastructure.
Industry watchers said the new services could spawn hybrid integration platforms that combine elements of private integration PaaS with on-premise integration platforms. One outcome would be public and private cloud deployment models.
In a blog post, Craig Muzilla, Red Hat's general manager for middleware, said the open source vendor is seeking to leverage PaaS technology to help simplify the application development and deployment process for software developers. By automating provisioning and deployments tasks, developers would be freed to focus on writing applications.
Previous PaaS offerings did support a variety of languages and frameworks, but fell short in terms of "connecting applications to disparate data and processes" already in use, Muzilla argued. Hence, Red Hat is stressing the ability of the new tools to operate in the existing datacenter infrastructure.
Red Hat said its JBoss xPaaS technologies are available now in developer preview. The services include data virtualization, mobile, business process and rule management along with an application container service based on Red Hat's JBoss Enterprise Application Platform.
The new services will be demonstrated this week during the Amazon Web Services Re:Invent conference in Las Vegas.
