Unlocking the cloud with xPaaS
Enterprises are beginning to focus on the cloud as a more efficient means for developing, integrating, and running applications; however, to accomplish this, they need to adopt a new approach that extends the capabilities of traditional enterprise middleware into the cloud.
Red Hat JBoss xPaaS services is one example of this approach, providing the powerful capabilities of Red Hat's traditional on-premises JBoss Middleware as cloud-based services on its OpenShift Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technology. This approach supports Gartner's definition of xPaaS as the entire spectrum of specialized middleware capabilities that can be offered as services in the cloud. As enterprises continually move application development into the cloud, we see the focus moving away from using several PaaS offerings to owning a unified development and operations experience. It's here where a single PaaS is desired, one that provides a single hub for application development needs.
The key differentiator for JBoss xPaaS compared to traditional PaaS technologies is that it isn't simply a cloud-based application platform with little integration and none of the advanced capabilities that are critical to enterprise development. Rather, it is a set of ready-to-use integrated services--a rich set of application development and integration capabilities--that lets users build and deploy intelligent, pervasive and engaging enterprise-scale applications. One example of a JBoss xPaaS service is Red Hat's recently-announced private integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) offering, which includes cloud-based services for application integration and messaging.
Integration of applications and workloads on hybrid IT infrastructures can be accomplished with cloud-based integration and messaging tools such as JBoss Fuse for xPaaS and JBoss A-MQ for xPaaS. These Red Hat JBoss private cloud integration offerings make up Red Hat's private iPaaS technology that allows faster integration by removing the traditional infrastructure set-up process. By incorporating Apache Camel, the standard enterprise integration patterns framework, JBoss Fuse for xPaaS can shorten application time-to-market.
While integration between SaaS, PaaS, and on-premises applications is a critical function for enterprise development, it is not the only capability that developers need for creating business-enhancing applications. Capabilities for data virtualization, data caching, business process automation, business rules management, mobile push notifications, and others are needed--and many are available as JBoss xPaaS services today. Having these capabilities helps simplify the application development process and allows enterprises to build intelligent, pervasive and engaging applications, integrate them with other systems, and deploy them across hybrid cloud environments.
Developers are also able to play a more strategic role in the organization with the ability to integrate rapidly, prototype quickly, and enhance DevOps and Continuous Integration (CI) practices.
As a result of building applications with JBoss xPaaS services, organizations can improve developer productivity by allowing them to focus solely on development instead of worrying about infrastructure and platform provisioning. Developers are also able to play a more strategic role in the organization with the ability to integrate rapidly, prototype quickly, and enhance DevOps and Continuous Integration (CI) practices.
Organizations that want to tap the full capabilities of cloud for the development of enterprise-grade business applications need to equip their IT and development teams with the right tools. By looking beyond the infrastructure and identifying and adopting a DevOps approach with a platform like JBoss xPaaS--one that delivers the powerful capabilities of on-premises development technologies with the speed and convenience of the cloud--organizations can unlock the potential of the cloud and empower their developers to accelerate innovation.