Who’s On Phirst

Last week, IBM announced that they were providing virtual machines through Amazon Web Services. Specifically, they provided AMI's for WebSphere Portal 6.1, WebSphere sMash, DB2 and Informix. It's about time.

We've been creating our own AMI's for WebSphere and Portal for months and it completely rocks. We use them currently for customer training. Using Boto (Amazon Web Services Python Module), I can fire up an arbitrary number of Windows and Linux images, configure WebSphere using Install Factory on my Linux images, install Phurnace on my Windows images, and create a CSV that I distribute to students with machine information. Thus, each student gets their own machines that they access via Remote Desktop Connection. Typically, software training involves a week of setup on a customer's servers or physically carrying servers from site to site. With AWS, we don't have to do that. We are no longer constrained by hardware resources.

For the past few weeks, we have been training our new customers. Without the Amazon images, we simply could not have provided the Phurnace level of service our customers have grown to expect. Using the images, we can parachute into any company, teach any size of class, and guarantee that each student has a fast machine, running like a top, and ready for each student to learn on.

Of course, the images only remove the need for hardware and software provisioning. You still have to configure WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere Portal to run your software. And for that, you need Phurnace Deliver and Phurnace WebSphere Portal Deliver. They work just as well in virtual environments and we prove it each time we do our training.

In Cloud Computing
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There’s a lot of politically-motivated talk these days about creating green jobs, green-collar jobs, green industries, even a green economy. Sounds great, but many people wonder if we can do it, how will we do it, and what is the answer. The answer is, we’re already doing it. The US is currently a global powerhouse in the greenest of green industries, and it is not some short term “feel good” category like pouring concrete to make windmills. It is SOFTWARE. Computer software is as green as it gets. Programs that do amazing things that are created from thoughts and good processes. No by-products, no carbon (except maybe the exhalation of engineers), no pollution, not even plastic discs or cardboard boxes anymore (think downloads). This is the greenest industry the planet has ever seen and may be the greenest ever. Yet, where is the software targeted stimulus, the special treatment for immigrants that are programmers, the incentive for college kids to study computer science, the “earmarks” and the special programs? It seems ridiculous that as the world’s leading technology innovator, we don’t prioritize investing heavily in our nation’s software programming assets – and help grow the industry to three times its current size. Or 300 times, for that matter.

Software is currently, or soon will be, as pervasive as plastic and steel -- embedded in every product and service offered the world over. Consider the iPhone -- a great product and ground-breaking invention. Sure, it’s got a sleek and sexy interface and feels great in your hand, but its bigger value lies in the software that downloads and plays your music, maps locations via GPS, and even allows you to do online banking. What was once just a mobile phone has now become a sophisticated software platform for next-generation application development, opening new doors of revenue opportunity and convenience for people around the world.

The list goes on. From automobiles, airplanes and power plants, to farming, banking and health care, software permeates every aspect of our lives.

Are we so shortsighted and beholden to the special interests of “old industry” that we would rather create a generation of ditch diggers and concrete pourers, than a generation of knowledge workers and software specialists? Hold on, I know what you’re saying, “We can’t all excel in math and programming to be in the software industry.” That’s ridiculous. I have never written a line of code in my life and I have been in the software industry since 1983. Yes, we need programmers, but there are hundreds of other job roles that support the software industry. That’s like saying that only aeronautical engineers work in the airplane and airline industries. Every industry now relies on software. I am not talking about just Microsoft, Oracle and Google. There are thousands of software jobs in banking, in transportation, in construction, in shipping, in (place any industry name here). Most of the world’s software actually ISN’T from the likes of Microsoft. As I said earlier, it is pervasive.

So write your Senator, send an email, comment on a blog. Whatever you do, spread the word. The answer to the green job problem is right in front of us -- and it’s SOFTWARE.

In Green
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The first time I installed IBM WebSphere XD, I was shocked. Right there, in the IBM Admin Console were the words "JBoss" and "WebLogic". What the heck is going on here?

The reality of Java Enterprise is that pretty much every company has multiple Java Application Server vendors. Typically, that is dictated by vendor solutions.

For example, our buddies at Zilliant (Hi, Chris and David!) make a pricing solution that runs on JBoss. When they go to implement the solution, they also provide the hardware and software. This makes perfect sense for them because they are able create a controlled environment for their application. And, it makes great sense for their customers because the Zilliant support team considers the entire stack part of their solution. That means, if there's a bug in JBoss, the Zilliant team will get a JBoss patch out to the customer.

Another example of a vendor dictated Application Server is some other friends of ours at Vignette (Hi, Brad!). Some Vignette products run on WebLogic. So when a customer purchases them from Vignette, they get WebLogic as part of the solution. And, like Zilliant, Vignette supports the WebLogic Application Server running underneath their products.

Of course, IBM is well aware of this. That's why they have created a mechanism to incorporate all of those disparate Application Servers into one place. XD will help you provide virtualization and health and resource management for applications that might have usage spikes, such as a payroll run on the last day of the month.

Lucky for you, Phurnace anticipated the same proliferation of Application Servers across the enterprise long ago. That's why we support them all: WebSphere (SA/ND/XD), WebLogic and JBoss (AS/EAP). So, using Phurnace Deliver and WebSphere XD is a perfect combination. Use XD to manage the resources and use Phurnace Deliver to manage the configuration. All in one place.

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An interesting development today in the world of automated application deployment -- Oracle plans to acquire mValent, a configuration management vendor located in Boston. mValent, the cat of the configuration management market (as in 9 lives), was originally a CMDB vendor, then positioned themselves differently, then again, then again, and finally, as application configuration automation. They have been a long time partner with Oracle as well as with OpsWare (acquired by HP). The acquisition announcement shows that automated configuration is becoming a hot topic. This validates that there are real challenges in the current processes around application configuration and that the challenges are now serious enough to get the attention of Oracle. We see it every day. Our customers and prospects tell us they feel the pain each time a new app, a new patch, or a new release requires deployment from dev to test to production. Too often, custom scripting or some hacked together scripting-framework is the norm.

My bet is that Oracle will evolve the mValent Integrity product to be surrounded by and dependent on Oracle-only products. Where does that leave the huge customer base that relies on other middleware offerings like IBM WebSphere, RedHat JBoss, BMC Bladelogic, HP Server Automation, IBM Build Forge, etc.? Oracle has this habit of forcing you to go back to their well (and making it tough if you don’t like the water). Phurnace is now the only vendor-neutral automated deployment vendor. And, we still plan to support all of the releases of WebLogic (Oracle’s web app server).

The discomfort of application deployment and configuration is real and most companies are just now realizing that there is a way to ease that pain. Oracle, with this acquisition, has said it is OK to admit the problem. So now I ask you, please go do something about it. Act. Look at both Oracle/mValent and at Phurnace Deliver™. Either choice is better than what you are probably doing today. Although I think Phurnace is the better choice.

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