Red Hat Intelligent Integration Day in London captures the imagination

Red Hat Intelligent Integration Day

As mentioned previously, I was in London yesterday speaking at the Red Hat Middleware Intelligent Integration Day after which I joined the Architecture Meetup for a few drinks and stories.

This was a select group of customers and partners that came together to dive into topics like JBoss Fuse as an integration solution for the enterprise, data integration with JBoss Data Virtualization, JBoss Fuse on xPaaS and finally mastering bpmPaaS with JBoss BPM Suite in the Cloud.

Before my talk some of the more integration related topics were covered with a rather good introduction to JBoss Fuse on xPaaS, better know as iPaaS.

My talk was well received and spent most of my time on hands on demos around bpmPaaS and various projects found on JBoss Demo Central:

Starting on slide four I talk about the various "aaS's", which I might have mentioned meaning of course "As A Services", but one attendee was sharp enough to see the humor in this statement.

Very welcome at this event!

Eric Schabell @ericschabell now demoing "a whole bunch of aasses" at #RedHat Middleware / Integration day, must check out his bpmworkshop
— Andrew Smale (@smaley) January 29, 2015

Kind of have to laugh at yourself when this happens... well done Mr. Smale!

After the sessions completed this event rolled over into the Architecture Meetup with drinks and lively discussions on JBoss in Healthcare, Insurance and a few other verticals that caught their imaginations after seeing rules, events, planning and processes in the Cloud.

Stay tuned for the session recordings that will be published with video and screen captures of the demos shown at this event.

How to Fly with the JBoss BPM Travel Agency (video 3 of 4)

The initial release of the JBoss BPM Suite Travel Agency got the travel industry excited about booking their next trip, but it was not a full booking experience.

We were missing the payment phase and had a few things more to show you, so just before the holidays last year we gave you the new and extended version.

This included a new payment sub-process, fraud detection, compensation (a BPM term for rolling back the bookings) and a tech preview of a new JSON client.

Well now we are here to present the first of four videos that will walk you through this project, covering these four topics:

• Part 1 - overview & install
• Part 2 - the project details
• Part 3 - a fraudulent booking
• Part 4 - a valid booking

So please enjoy this fraudulent booking submission with the JBoss BPM Suite Travel Agency in seven minutes.

Be sure and watch the rest of the series.

Japanese translation (日本語訳)

Sighting JBoss BPM Travel Agency in the Wild

There are signs all around the globe now at Red Hat offices and training centers that are used to announce projects, marketing events, and projects that could be of use to you.

As of today you will find a new JBoss BPM Travel Agency Demo sign will be appearing that provides some of the highlights of the project, like setup in minutes, 4 part series of videos to get you started and a handy QR-code to jump straight into it.

To make it more interesting we have a contest for you where we are looking for official sightings of the JBoss BPM Travel Agency in the wild.

Keep you eyes peeled, capture the sign below in a photo posted to Twitter. Be sure to tag shown below and we might contact you for a prize bag full of #JBoss #BPM goodies. ;)

Post picture to Twitter with: #BPMTravelAgency @ericschabell

Japanese translation (日本語訳)

Platform as a Service by OpenShift is in Your Future

Last week I mentioned the Power to Innovate event in Utrecht, Netherlands as a chance to learn more about the topics around accelerating your business through enterprise open source.

Yesterday +130 attendees decided to take us up on the invitation with a little over half showing up to determine their answer to the question, "Is Platform as a Service (PaaS) in your furture?"

It was an event with architects, heads of infrastructure, partners, ISV's and a few others all looking to innovate through the use of Open Source.

My session took the attendees through some of the following topics:

• the basics of what a PaaS is
• how a PaaS it is built from the foundation to higher level services
• how JBoss fits into their PaaS strategy 
• what xPaaS is in relation to increasing their business agility
• how this can help in their reactions to market forces on their business

Most notably was that after the session I was approached by a handful of enthusiastic architects who insisted that they were going to dig into this right away. They were as yet not aware how simple a PaaS could be and how easy the go-to-market chain for their products could become.

The slides will remain online for some time and a copy can be obtained online:

3 Shockingly Easy Ways into JBoss Rules, Events, Planning & BPM

The new year has started and we are looking to make your life easier.

We did not want to let you get started with the various JBoss BRMS and JBoss BPM Suite demo projects without something exciting and new this year, so here you go.

The following projects, basically everything we have for you, now includes an optional Docker installation.

See the individual projects readme files for details, but thanks goes out to Andrew Block in NA who spent time on creating this exciting upgrade to our projects.

Wait a minute, I promised you 3 ways to get started?

3 ways into JBoss

1. we have a local installation of each project (in a few minutes I might add!)
2. we have an OpenShift xPaaS Cloud installation of each project (one-click button!)



Look for this button.

3. we now have a Docker installation for each project listed below.

Not only can you run all of the demo projects locally, but most in the OpenShift xPaaS Cloud and now with this third option you can run them in in Docker.

JBoss BPM Suite projects

• JBoss BPM Suite install project
• JBoss BPM HR Employee Rewards project
• JBoss BPM Generic Loan project
• JBoss BPM Mortgage project
• JBoss BPM Customer Evaluation project

Note some of the projects are progressing to the stage where all three options are available, but until they are you can get started with at least two different options: 

• JBoss BPM Travel Agency project 
• JBoss BPM ECM project
• JBoss BPM Helpdesk project

These are but a sample of the projects available based on JBoss BPM Suite, browse to find what you are interested in at JBoss Demo Central.

JBoss BRMS projects

• JBoss BRMS install project
• Cool Store project

Note some of the projects are progressing to the stage where all three options are available, but until they are you can get started with at least two different options: 

• Business Resource Optimizer project

These are but a sample of the projects available based on JBoss BRMS, browse to find what you are interested in at JBoss Demo Central.

JBoss Integration projects

The JBoss integration projects (demos integrating more than one product) are progressing to the stage where all three options are available, but until they are you can get started with at least two different options: 

• JBoss BRMS & JBoss Fuse integration project
• JBoss DV & JBoss BRMS integration project

These are but a sample of the integration projects available based on JBoss BRMS or JBoss BPM Suite, browse to find what you are interested in at JBoss Demo Central.

Japanese translation (日本語訳)

How to Fly with the JBoss BPM Travel Agency (video 2 of 4)

The initial release of the JBoss BPM Suite Travel Agency got the travel industry excited about booking their next trip, but it was not a full booking experience.

We were missing the payment phase and had a few things more to show you, so just before the holidays last year we gave you the new and extended version.

This included a new payment sub-process, fraud detection, compensation (a BPM term for rolling back the bookings) and a tech preview of a new JSON client.

Well now we are here to present the first of four videos that will walk you through this project, covering these four topics:

• Part 1 - overview & install
• Part 2 - the project details
• Part 3 - a fraudulent booking
• Part 4 - a valid booking

So please enjoy this deep dive into the JBoss BPM Suite Travel Agency in just under five minutes.

Be sure and watch the rest of the series.

Japanese translation (日本語訳)

Is Platform as a Service (PaaS) your future?

Next week is the Power to Innovate event in Utrecht, Netherlands on the 22nd of January, 2015 where you can learn more about the topics around accelerating your business through enterprise open source.

You will have the chance to meet some of the active players in the enterprise open source world with a full day of keynote speakers and parallel sessions around data virtualization, business integration and Cloud enablement.

There will be several customer cases presented and you will have time to mingle with the presenters during a closing cocktail hour.

Be sure to register for free and more importantly, don't miss the most exciting session on the agenda:

Is Platform as a Service your future?

Within OpenShift Online, the public PaaS platform from Red Hat, there are more than 2 million applications per month being developed and the private OpenShift platform is currently being implemented in many organizations in their own data centers. But what drives organizations to use a Paas?

In this session Red Hat will give answers to the following questions:

• What are the important reasons that an organization choses PaaS?
• How is the adoption of PaaS in the Netherlands progressing?
• How can a business case be made for implementing a PaaS?
• How do organizations deal with the integration of their existing environment?
• What are the best practices when migrating from a traditional application platform to a PaaS platform?
• What are the most common pitfalls during a PaaS deployment?

Hope to see you there!

How to Fly with the JBoss BPM Travel Agency (video 1 of 4)

The initial release of the JBoss BPM Suite Travel Agency got the travel industry excited about booking their next trip, but it was not a full booking experience.

We were missing the payment phase and had a few things more to show you, so just before the holidays last year we gave you the new and extended version.

This included a new payment sub-process, fraud detection, compensation (a BPM term for rolling back the bookings) and a tech preview of a new JSON client.

Well now we are here to present the first of four videos that will walk you through this project, covering these four topics:

• Part 1 - overview & install
• Part 2 - the project details
• Part 3 - a fraudulent booking
• Part 4 - a valid booking

So please enjoy this overview and guide to installing the JBoss BPM Suite Travel Agency in just under three and a half minutes.

Be sure and watch the rest of the series.

Japanese translation (日本語訳)

Mastering xPaaS at Red Hat Middleware Day London

At the end of the month, 29th of January, there will be an event hosted in London, UK for showcasing integration and BPM middleware solutions by Red Hat JBoss.

I will be attending the Red Hat Middleware Day from 09:00 - 17:00 at the Radisson Blu Portman Hotel and hosting a session that dives into the wonders of xPaas and BPM.

After this session there will be an evening meet-up with customers and more talks showcasing implementations, solutions and give you the chance to network with some of the domain experts in your area of interest.

Mastering xPaaS

Ever wondered about all the new Cloud offerings out there? What is a PaaS? What is this thing Garner keeps calling xPaaS? How can I as a beginner get started in a few hours?

Whether your business is running on applications based on Java EE6, PHP or Ruby, the cloud is turning out to be the perfect environment for developing your business. There are plenty of clouds and platform-as-a-services to choose from, but where to start?

Join us for three action-packed hours of power where we'll show you how to deploy your existing application written in the language of your choice - Java, Ruby, PHP, Perl or Python, with the project of your choice - jBPM, Ceylon, Switchyard, Drools Planner, Aerogear, GateIn, Drools (Rules / BPM) and more deployed into the OpenShift PaaS in just minutes. All this and without having to rewrite your app to get it to work the way the cloud provider thinks your app should work.

If you want to learn about xPaaS and see how investing just an hour of your time can change everything you thought you knew about putting your business applications in the cloud, this session is for you!

See you there!

Taking the Developers Journey at OSCON 2015

This summer in my home town, Portland, OR, the annual O'Reilly OSCON conference will be held.

From July 20-24th OSCON celebrates, defines, and demonstrates the power of open source in the world today. From small businesses to the enterprise, open source is the first choice of IT everywhere.

Together with Markus Eisele, we have submitted the following proposal.

There and back with JBoss - the developers journey

As members of the developer fellowship using JBoss, similar to the epic story from Tolkien, we too embark on a journey that takes us from the humble beginnings of projects to the solid towers of products. This session will immerse you in the story of how a project is born, how the developer engages in her first contact with the JBoss community, the discovery of the technology and how this process evolves to something bigger. The journey winds through the JBoss ecosystem and leads to possibilities, often unknown to the user, that bring order, trust and solid enterprise solutions to their daily lives.

Join us for an hour of story telling, epic discoveries, long lost love for the art of solving complex problems with open technology and the warm glow of understanding the big picture of how JBoss ties it all together to support you on each journey to embark upon.

Hope to see you all there.

How To Conquer National Censorship With xPaaS on OpenShift

JBoss rules, events, planning and BPM can't be censored!

I had a rather interesting experience this week when returning to work for the first time in 2015.

Along with all the mail that piles up in my inbox during the week long break over the holidays there was a persistent request from an India follower trying to use some of my demo projects around JBoss BRMS and JBoss BPM Suite.

It seems that during the holidays India's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology blocked sites that include Github, where all my demos are hosted.

No matter the cause, this created a bit of a dilemma when trying to help someone working in India as this article on ZDNet put it, "Problems accessing GitHub are going to be especially painful for India's enormous developer workforce, and will definitely impact both India's domestic and outsourced software development business sector."

The reason appears to be the wish to restrict ISIS propaganda on this and other sites (total of 32 blocked).

Enter my new friend in India with a wish to get rocking with JBoss BPM Suite and the online workshop I posted last year.

BPM workshop in the Cloud.

We talked about trying to zip up all the material and find somewhere to download this from, but his bandwidth was limited and his work need pressing.

Low and behold, there were Cloud solutions on his horizon and we setup a European hosted OpenShift bpmPaaS instance for him, pointed this to clone the existing workshop materials as instructed and all he was off and running.

Avoid censorship with xPaaS

This can be done with any of the current OpenShift hosted xPaaS solutions, but my friend needed bpmPaaS, so here is what we did.

• create an OpenShift account (Bronze level)
• setup a JBoss BPM Suite instance using a manual 'rhc' setup as can't access github to use the one-click button on the bpmPaaS project (remember, github was blocked in India...):

Manual setup on OpenShift

Or if you want to use the rhc command line type:

rhc app create -g medium <APP NAME> https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jbossdemocentral/cartridge-bpmPaaS/master/metadata/manifest.yml

This will output the generated users and passwords for Business Central.


Once this was done he was able to login and start working through the online JBoss BRMS & JBoss BPM Suite workshops.

Nothing like a bit of clouds in the forecast to solve that pesky national censorship problem! 

4 Ways To Kick-start Projects With Business Resource Optimizer

Optimize your Cloud.

There is nothing like finding that perfect tool, the tool that will help you to optimize your projects current solution.

Often we are confronted with a new tool that we would love to use, but our organization and the rest of your team needs to be subtly convinced that this is the next best thing since sliced bread.

This need in combination with the free advertising space you have on the lid of your laptop has led us to provide you with a perfect way to solve this dilemma.

Optimize logistical problems.

The following laptop stickers are brand new and specifically targeting the use of JBoss BRMS Business Resource Optimizer component, that will help you with all your optimization needs.

It will optimize planning, packing, resource allocation, tracking, coordination and many other problems based on the goals and restrictions you provide.

For a look at several use cases where the Business Resource Optimizer component shines we provide a demo project you can install yourself.

So without further delay, we present these four ways to start hyping optimization for your projects.

1. Goal digger

Become the goal digger and find that ultimate solution.

It's all about digging for the right goals!

2. Good luck

There is no such thing as good luck, it requires good planning, so get planning today!

3. Failing to plan

If you have trouble executing, you might want to consider this sticker for your laptop to remind you where the focus needs to be.


A lack of a plan is the first problem it solves!

4. Goals

Do you sit behind your laptop and on your projects dreaming of the perfect plan to execute all your solutions on?


Do you feel like planning is the ultimate way to reach your goals?

Maybe this sticker for your laptop will help turn your wish into reality.

Where to get them?

These stickers are fresh off the presses and can be obtained by finding your favorite JBoss Technology Evangelist or other optimization specialist at the next conference, event or meetup group.

They will be more than happy to paste your laptop up with any number of stickers to help you make your plans and goals reality.

Japanese translation (日本語訳)