Eric D. Schabell: August 2016

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Cloudy expectations at RHTE 2016 in Ho Chi Minh City

Coming up next week in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam is the annual APAC Red Hat Tech Exchange conference. I have spoken at several of these events over the years and they remain one of the best venues to meet up with partners and Red Hat rock stars from all over the region.

As I previously mentioned, I submitted several talks to this event and though they all were accepted I am unable to attend personally due to transitioning from the US back to Europe. This is a big move and I could not really find time to head over to Asia for this conference.

The good news is I planned in advance and found a most excellent replacement in Andrew Block, probably the most talented Principle Consultant at Red Hat I have ever had the pleasure of working with. He is an avid traveller, coder, technology enthusiast and just plain fun guy to talk with.

A little bit about Andrew: He's a Principal Consultant from the Central region of the United States who specializes in OpenShift, Integration and Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery. He is a core member of the Enterprise Integration and Container & PaaS Community of Practices (CoP) and frequently writes about his experiences working with open source technology.


We have spent some time over the last weeks working on the stories we want to share with you in Vietnam next week. While you will have to attend to hear the stories live, to experience the demos that Andrew will be rocking live on stage, for now  you can see the presentations that will be used.

Without any further delay, here are the three sessions you don't want to miss at the Red Hat Tech Exchange 2016:

Four stories for the Red Hat Cloud Suite

This session will highlight the four stories you tell when looking to help your customers and partners move into the Red Hat Cloud Suite for their cloud infrastructure. During this session you will learn to tell the stories for IT Optimization, Modernizing Development and Operations, Accelerating Service Delivery and Scaleable Infrastructure. These stories are backed with content, examples and videos that help you to become a professional Cloud Suite storyteller!



Using the Red Hat Container Development Kit (CDK)

As a field resource, either pre-sales or post-sales, you can make good use of the Red Hat Container Development Kit (CDK). As pre-sales it is the ultimate tool for running local Cloud-based example projects in a fully automated, low touch, easy to install OpenShift Container Platform. As post-sales you will have a great environment to prototype your solutions and a playground for your customer engagements. I will take you on a tour of how to get started and you will leave with a fully installed Red Hat CDK environment on your personal machine. Get started the minute you leave this session with Red Hat CDK to explore examples of Red Hat middleware solutions, application development and wow your customers with how easy the Cloud can really be!


Get your App Dev on in the Cloud

There is a lot of hype around Cloud infrastructure at Red Hat with the introduction of product solutions like Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure (RHCI) and Red Hat Cloud Suite (RHCS). What does this mean for your customers that have to develop application on this Cloud infrastructure? In this session you will be given a growing toolbox of examples, how-to’s and video pointers so that you can tell a story around application development in the Cloud. By the end of this session you will be able to answer the question, “Why can’t I ignore the stack anymore?”



I hope you enjoy these sessions and let both Andrew and myself know what you think?

Monday, August 22, 2016

Understanding the 3 kinds of debt haunting your CIO

3 kinds of debt, path to understanding pressures on your CIO
In the modern world we are all familiar with debt.

We all owe a debt to someone.

We all owe a debt of something.

We all owe a debt somewhere.

It can be as simple as debt on your credit card, it can be a large lode stone that the bank puts around your neck when you buy your dream house or it can be as tiny as promises you have made to those that trust you.

There are three kinds of debt that can be haunting your boss at work, your CIO, and understanding what pressures are on her shoulders will help you when pitching your suggestions to the C-level audiences in your organization. In this series I will take a deeper look at the following three kinds of debt that are facing your CIO. It will help you when positioning your projects within your organization and help you to succeed in your C-level interactions.

Technical debt

The typical definition references Ward Cunningham, relating to quick and easy development solutions that require rework later are chosen over more complex solutions that are done right the first time. The idea being that if you do enough of these quick and easy solutions, you are accruing an ever growing pile of technical debt.

If you take this to the level of the CIO, where many of the technical decision eventually are given a final blessing, you are now looking at technical debt that can span more than just a single development solution.

I believe that technical debt is also created when you are implementing infrastructure solutions that will lead to major expensive changes down the road. The difference with technical debt from solutions development and with infrastructure development will be the focus of this topic with a look at why it is a burden on innovation.

Stay tuned for an in depth look in this series at how technical debt is haunting your CIO.

Relationship debt

This kind of debt is less visible in an organization if you don't know how to read the signs. Every CIO has to manage relationships with their suppliers and vendors, though most of these will be of the nature that they are run transactionally through commercial departments like procurement or purchasing.


There will be a few key, or strategic, relationships that the CIO will want to maintain personally to keep a finger on the pulse of the vendors that are delivering the key components to the operation. These can be software or infrastructure or a combination of both, but they will be vital to the personal agenda of your CIO. The question is how can you watch your CIO and have a good understanding of which vendors are the strategic ones and which are just throwing around the word strategic when they visit your organization?

Stay tuned for an in depth look in this series at how relationship debt is haunting your CIO.

Political debt

When you start to understand how your CIO has committed to certain choices within your organization, then you are into the arena of political debt. This is where a CIO has chosen a solution to solve a critical path in her agenda and is going to do all she can to ensure this path is successfully navigated.

Political debt is one that can span technology choices, solution choices, personnel choices and vendor choices that will often not even be the best choices in hindsight. One must tread carefully when dealing with political debt, as they will weigh just as heavily on decision made around your project proposals as any of the other two.

Stay tuned for an in depth look in this series at how political debt is haunting your CIO.

Haunting call

By introducing the three kinds of debt that are haunting in their effect on your CIO, I intend to lay the ground work before diving into a deeper look at each one of these kinds of debt. I will be giving you valuable insights into how you can use this knowledge when positioning your projects, such as Open Source Cloud solutions, JBoss architectures, Cloud Suite, OpenStack or OpenShift strategies to your CIO.

Debt is everywhere, even in your organization, and it's haunting your CIO every single day. Let's make sure you can use these situations to your advantage.

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

How to get started with JBoss BPM

If you are evaluating, exploring or just plain interested in learning more about Business Process Management (BPM), then read onwards as this is what you have been waiting for.

While there are quite a few resources online, often they are focused either on community project code that is constantly changing or disjointed in such a manner that it is very difficult for you to find a coherent learning path.

No more.

Just a few months back, in June, the early access program for Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM kicked off. This book is focused on a coherent path of learning to get you started with BPM and it focuses on JBoss BPM Suite as the Open Source BPM solution of choice.

The first chapters have been put online and you can both read along as the book is written, while interacting with the author in the online forums.

Monday, August 15, 2016

London JBug - Experience the Potential of JBoss Private Cloud

Next month I will be taking a tour through the UK region. As I have often done in the past, I will be stopping to chat with the user groups in Edinburgh, Scotland and London, UK.

I first stopped by in 2011 to talk about jBPM, a community project that is now the product Red Hat JBoss BPM Suite. The second time I was there was in 2014, when I gave a JBoss BPM Suite workshop in the summer, which is always a great time to be in London.

This time around I will be talking about a different area in the Red Hat technology space, namely the Cloud Suite technologies as they relate to application developers. This means how can an application developer interact, leverage and improve their (working) lives with this technology stack.  Not only that, but how can we show this without using a data center or enterprise hosting of this stack as most of us want to experience it locally on our own machines.

With that in mind, partnering with the London JBug, we have put together an evening that included a two staged talk to first lay the ground work on your local machine and then take you off into the Clouds with containerized application development.

The event takes place at a cool new location called CodeNode:

CodeNode
10 South Place, London, EC2M 7EB


The meetup

This September, we’re delighted to welcome back one of our most popular speakers, Red Hat Technology Evangelist, Eric D. Schabell. Eric is in the UK for a short time and has kindly agreed to present two talks with a focus on realizing the potential of the JBoss private cloud.

In his first talk – A local private PaaS in minutes with Red Hat CDK - Eric will demonstrate how a full blown private PaaS based on OpenShift Container Platform is at your fingertips with the Red Hat Container Development Kit (CDK). As developers it is the ultimate tool for running local Cloud-based example projects in a fully automated, low touch, easy to install OpenShift Container Platform. He’ll show you how you can create a great environment to prototype your solutions and a playground for your customer engagements – and reveal just how easy the Cloud can really be!

Following a drinks break, Eric will continue with his second presentation: Painless containerization in your very own Private Cloud. As application developers we are coming to grips with new technology all the time. Containerizing what we do is becoming the standard as our applications are delivered into the Cloud. Eric shows you a painless way to easily install a private Cloud in just minutes, one that leverages today’s docker-based container technologies from & wrapped in a developer friendly self-service OpenShift platform. He’ll offer examples that leverage real hands-on JBoss applications painlessly containerized for the Cloud.

Agenda:

18:30 - 18:45 Meet-up with a beer at the bar
18:45 - 19:00 Part One - A local private PaaS in minutes with Red Hat CDK
19:00 - 19:15 Beer break and chat
19:15 - 20:00 Part Two - Painless containerization in your very own Private Cloud
20:00 – 20:15 Questions and Discussion
20:15 Pizza, beer and networking


Registration can be done online and I am looking forward to seeing you there!

Thursday, August 11, 2016

JBug Scotland - An evening of Cloud, containers and application development

Over a year ago I was asked and spoke at the JBug Scotland to a great group of people. It was hosted in Edinburg and repeated in Glasgow, met a lot of fun people while showcasing a workshop around JBoss BPM technologies.

Shortly after that event I moved to the US for a year, an experience that is now coming slowly to and end. With that in mind, I was contacted about my return to Europe by my friends in Scotland. They wondered if I would like to revisit?

I am currently in a different evangelist role with a focus on solutions based on the entire Red Hat product portfolio. One thing led to another and we aligned a set of talks that cover a few things I am working on now.

Details are on the JBug Scotland site, but I will be there on Thursday, 22 Sep 2016 from 17:15 - 19:30 hrs. The address will be:

Orchard Brae House
30 Queensferry Road
Edinburgh, EH4 2HS

There will be food, drinks and three talks by me with one or more lightning talks slipped in just for fun. Below what I plan to cover in three sessions.

When getting started with JBoss BPM you are looking for a reference to help you understand what is possible and how it works. This session will highlight a new project that is a collaboration between Eric D. Schabell and Manning publishing to bring you a book that covers all you need to know to get started with JBoss BPM Suite. 

The book is available online in early access (electronic) format and in this session the author will give you a sneak peek at what is in the book, what is coming and answer any questions you might have. You have a unique chance to provide feedback and maybe even get something you desire into the book before it is completed. 

Finally, you will be give a free chapter to enjoy on your trip home after attending!

A local private PaaS in minutes with the Red Hat CDK 

You heard that right, a full blown private PaaS based on OpenShift Container Platform is at your finger tips with the Red Hat Container Development Kit (CDK) in just minutes. As developers it is the ultimate tool for running local Cloud-based example projects in a fully automated, low touch, easy to install OpenShift Container Platform. You will have a great environment to prototype your solutions and a playground for your customer engagements. Join me to see how easy the Cloud can really be!

Painless containerization in your very own Private Cloud

As application developers we are coming to grips with new technology all the time. Containerizing what we do is becoming the standard as our applications are delivered into the Cloud. Let me show you a painless way to easily install a private Cloud in just minutes, one that leverages today’s docker based container technologies from & wrapped in a developer friendly self-service OpenShift platform. Join me for examples that leverage real hands-on JBoss applications of painlessly containerized for the Cloud. 

Be sure to register and I am looking forward to seeing you there!

Monday, August 8, 2016

Red Hat Cloud Tools - QuickStart Cloud Installer (video)

Since the creation and launch of the Red Hat Cloud Suite there has been some additions in the tooling around make good use of this technology stack. This is the Cloud stack you can't ignore when looking to facilitate both your infrastructure needs and your application development needs.

There is much more to planning and designing your Cloud stack before you make the actual move to setup your environment. With that in mind, Red Hat has gathered some very useful tools to help you in planning, designing and deploying your Cloud infrastructure with Red Hat Cloud Suite.

The following tools are going to be covered in this series:
In this article you will be give a short tour in just over five minutes that will show you how you can benefit when installing your next Cloud deployment with this tool.

QuickStart Cloud Installer

The QuickStart Cloud Installer is a web-based graphical user interface for provisioning cloud products. In one straight-forward installation, you can use it to deploy a single product or multiple products, including Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Red Hat Satellite, and Red Hat CloudForms.



For some of the example applications available for you to experience application development on this Cloud stack, visit the Red Hat Demo Central.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM - Chapter 3 released into MEAP

In June 2016 the Early Access Program (MEAP) started for my book Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM.

What is a MEAP?

The Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM MEAP gives you full access to read chapters as they are written, get the finished eBook as soon as it’s ready, and receive the paper book long before it's in bookstores.

You can also interact with the author, that's me, on the forums to provided feedback as the book is being written. So come on over and get started today with Effective Business Process Management with JBoss BPM.

The way the MEAP works is that Manning put the first two chapters online in June and now about a month later they are releasing chapter 3. Those already in the MEAP will have access to start reading chapter 3 and provide any feedback they have to me straight away.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Red Hat Cloud Tools - Cloud Deployment Planner (video)

Since the creation and launch of the Red Hat Cloud Suite there has been some additions in the tooling around make good use of this technology stack. This is the Cloud stack you can't ignore when looking to facilitate both your infrastructure needs and your application development needs.

There is much more to planning and designing your Cloud stack before you make the actual move to setup your environment. With that in mind, Red Hat has gathered some very useful tools to help you in planning, designing and deploying your Cloud infrastructure with Red Hat Cloud Suite.

The following tools are going to be covered in this series:
In this article you will be give a short tour that will, in less than two minutes, show you how you can benefit when planning your next Cloud deployment.

Cloud Deployment Planner

If you plan on deploying multiple products, using this tool will help you determine which product versions to deploy. The Feature Compatibility Tool will help you understand which product versions will work well together and the Life Cycle Compatibility Tool will tell you which versions have compatible support lifecycles.



For some of the example applications available for you to experience application development on this Cloud stack, visit the Red Hat Demo Central.