AppDev in the Cloud self-paced, free, online workshop

AppDev in the Cloud free online workshop.

Are you ready to get hands on with containers, web services, Java, .Net, PHP, service integration, and all that in the Cloud on your very own laptop?

If you are, hold on to your hats, this is the workshop for you.

The description for this workshop provides you with the basics behind what you will be doing with your very own laptop:

Ready to get hands-on with AppDev in the Cloud with container based services? This workshop will let you experience the wonders of Red Hat's open technologies for Cloud based application development, letting you pull together multiple services in to a Cloud on your laptop (be sure to bring it with you).

In this workshop you're a developer working for Destinaisa, a travel agency that needs to setup its online bookings applications backend services. You'll be installing the OpenShift Container Platform on your laptop, then installing JBoss BRMS to work in the Destinasia discount rules. 

Once they are completed, you leverage Ansible playbook to see infrastructure automation in action. Each playbook will deploy a new container based service to support flight, hotel, car and discount rule queries from your application. In total you will be running 6 container based applications or services on your laptop in a private PaaS before testing this solution with a REST client, sending a booking and verifying the discounts provided by the rules you implemented.  

As you can see, this is a complex and realistic application development workshop that will pull together quite a few open technologies on your laptop.

Let's examine the parts that make up this workshop.

Boston JUG - Evening of AppDev in the Cloud Workshop

Boston JUG

A few weeks back I spent an evening with the Boston Java User Group (JUG), a group I've visited through the years as part of my journey through the world of Red Hat product evangelism.

This is a smart group of developers that enjoy everything from core Java, business processes, business logic, Cloud and more.

It's always a group that I like to test my workshops on as they provide a good baseline of knowledge and user interaction, ensuring what I'm trying to bring to the application developer is actually resonating.

This evening was during the week of OpenStack Summit in Boston and gave me a chance to step out to the Rapid 7 offices downtown for pizza and good conversations around the topics of application development in the Cloud. There were 44 registered attendees and the hosts at Rapid 7 provided a fantastic area for the attendees to work in.

Let's take a look at what the workshop offers attendees and what that experience looks like.

How To Take New Improved Mortgage Finance Process in to the Clouds

New and improved Mortgage Finance process application.

Early last year I showed you how to take a JBoss Mortgage Finance process in to the clouds.

A little over a year later it's time to refresh this experience and the release of OpenShift Container Platform v3.5 gives you a Cloud in just minutes to deploy it on.

For some time now it has been apparent that application developers can't ignore their stack anymore, as stated in the App Dev Cloud Stack series. Part of this story involves providing something interesting to deploy on your new Cloud Stack.

Updated and ready for OpenShift Container Platform, today you can start running the Mortgage Finance process in a few easy steps. It's a full demo application and leverages a financial process example based on JBoss BPM Suite with the business central web console running containerized in the Cloud.

Tips for Attending the Red Hat Partner Conference EMEA

The best conference you can find for Red Hat Partners is coming to Frankfurt, Germany from June 18 - 21.

This conference brings all the sessions, speakers and technologies you need to build on the rapidly accelerating demand for digital transformation solutions. This year’s agenda focuses on providing you with the knowledge needed to truly profit from your partnership with Red Hat - today and in the future.

Whether you’re an independent software vendor, systems integrator, (cloud) service provider or sponsor, this event is entirely devoted to not just meeting, but hopefully exceeding, your expectations and to providing significant value to your business.

Red Hat’s Partner Conference is a great opportunity to experience the amazing spirit of collaboration and deep connection that makes the Red Hat partner community unique in the industry. Of all the industry events out there, this really is one you cannot afford to miss. Be sure to register today.

The following are a few tips for those of you attending next month. I am going to be speaking with the ever dynamic and energetic Margaret Dawson on the following:

How To Save on Planning Cloud Deployments

Figure 1. Cloud Deployment Planner virtual stack designer.

Since the creation and launch of the Red Hat Cloud Suite last year, additional tooling was provided to help make good use of all the technologies included in this stack.

It's the Cloud stack you can't ignore when looking to facilitate both your infrastructure needs and your application development needs.

One key aspect is planning and designing a Cloud stack before diving in to setup a digital architecture using open technologies.

With that in mind, Red Hat published a free and useful tool to help with planning, designing and deploying your Cloud infrastructure with Red Hat Cloud Suite.

Figure 2. Selecting open technology components for
a Cloud deployment.

This week a new version of this planning tool was released, called Cloud Deployment Planner, still freely available online. It includes a new feature to help visualized the planning of your components in your Cloud stack, called Virtual Stack Designer.

Let's look at how this tool saves time and effort up front when planning a Cloud deployment.

Cloud Happiness - How To Get OpenShift Container Platform v3.5 Installed in Minutes

Get OpenShift Container Platform v3.5 today!

There is no easier way to install your very own Cloud than with OpenShift Container Platform (OCP).

A few months back I showed you how to go from no Cloud to fully Cloud enabled with a container based application development platform in just over two minutes.

This was based back then on OCP 3.4, but now it's time to update this project to get you onto the newer version 3.5 with many new features I know you want to get your hands on.

If you've been following my journey through the application development phases of storytelling, it's fairly obvious I'm a fan of Cloud based solutions like OpenShift. This is how application development goes from local resources and moves on to remote resources, while developers continue to work locally in the same manner as always.

Figure 1. Container images pulled to your box.

After the Red Hat Summit announcements, I updated the OpenShift Container Platform Install Demo to provide version 3.5, without changing any of the installation steps.

It is so simple, I believe that anyone can set this up in just minutes.

Impressions at OpenStack Summit Boston 2017

This year in Boston, MA I was lucky enough to join the thousands of enthusiastic Stackers at the OpenStack Summit.

This was a chance to take a closer look at the community and direction of the OpenStack as a platform.

The main event is the first day kickoff and features an extended morning of keynotes along with background on progression of OpenStack in the wild and within active enterprise users.

It started with an initial look back at the past year and how much the community has grown, but also showcasing that this growth wasn't just in the development space.

Red Hat Summit 2017 - Taking an AppDev look back

The Red Hat Summit 2017 has finished and there were a lot of interesting things that were announced, that happened and that were presented.

In fact, there was so much to do that one could not be everywhere at once.

With this in mind, let's take a look at the experience I had in Boston, MA. this week and share some of these impressions.

The biggest day is of course the opening of the Red Hat Summit.

It's the main keynote and includes a series of live demonstrations all captured for you in this video, so take a break and watch this from end-to-end.

Red Hat Developers Interview online (video)

During the Red Hat Summit this week in Boston, MA, I had some time to spend with my friend Jason Porter.

Jason works on the Developer Program at Red Hat and interviewed me about a diverse set of topics.

We discussed what I am doing now and how that differs from the past, we jumped into some of the larger solution spaces developers are faced with in their daily jobs.

I also talked about some of the uses cases that our products and tooling can help with and we touched on my love of AppDev in the Cloud.

Some of the items I mention are provided here for reference:

• Red Hat Demo Central
• Boston JUG - App Dev in the Cloud
• AppDev in the Cloud Workshop