Ramblings of an integration guy

Kubernetes - a skills issue Although the offerings I'm about to discuss are different, they're interesting enough to explore more closely. Both IBM and MuleSoft are claiming that the reason for implementing their solutions is because they perceive a lack of skills in containers and Kubernetes.

When I first joined Lightwell I was struck by how everyone discusses "on-boarding". What was this magical and mystical thing? Why was it discussed in such reverential tones? Having analysed this further I'm still a little mystified as to why the hush tones but I'll put a few words down here about what I consider on-boarding to consist of and why it's as much a human process as a technical challenge.

Last year I discussed how I saw the evolution of APIs and EDI evolving.  I'm going to grow that argument here to say that agile methodologies have more to do with API management's current proliferation than the usurping of EDI.

"App Connect" ring any bells at all? In case it doesn’t, App Connect is an  IBM integration  product suite released a couple of years ago. Now, IBM has announced that IBM Integration Bus (IIB) V11.0 is  now IBM App Connect Enterprise    There's more to this than just a renaming of IIB—IBM has added in some IBM WebSphere Cast Iron capabilities and they've created a new  IIB  GUI as well. In this blog entry I’ll go through these changes and look at what it means in the long-term.

Every time I see a "Blockchain 101" inevitably, it mentions Bitcoin. Personally, I think that's like telling you what a spoke on a wheel is rather than telling you how to ride the bike. I figured I'd write the "How to ride a bike" version of "Blockchain 101". BTW: I'm going to try to not mention the *B* word again here, so, let's go...

In this post Connor Smith and I will give a brief overview of Poison Messages, and how the various IBM MQ clients handle them and what you need to do as an application writer.

APIs are something I've discussed a lot recently and this blog continues the theme. In this entry I discuss how API management relates to Service Orientated Architecture (SOA). I discuss how SOA is not going away but it is going to be greatly simplified by the introduction of API management and its concepts. I also discuss how IBM's API Connect product works in both a "traditional" SOA world as well as the more rapid and potentially more agile world, that APIs have grown from.