DISCOVER CLOUD COMPUTING DEVELOPING FOR THE CLOUD ARCHIVE

IBM Industry Application Platform Provides Faster Debugging and Shorter Development Time

IBM has integrated components to create the Industry Application Platform image and made it available on Amazon’s EC2 and IBM’s SmartCloud services. The image includes WebSphere Application Server, DB2 Express-C and WebSphere MQ, and is configured to execute on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11. 


By David B. Jacobs January 10, 2012  

Software developers are constantly under pressure to accelerate the development process and quickly bring new applications into production. Throughout the history of software development, each phase of the process — from requirements statement to final deployment — has been analyzed, looking for ways to decrease the time required. The cloud now offers an opportunity to shorten the debug, integration and test phases.

To assist developers, IBM has integrated components to create the Industry Application Platform image and made it available on Amazon’s EC2 and IBM’s SmartCloud services. The image includes WebSphere Application Server, DB2 Express-C and WebSphere MQ, and is configured to execute on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.

A sample application based on a standard Java EE benchmark application, along with a customizable configuration script, are included with the image. Developers can study the source code and script to understand how the application uses features of all three of the key products – for WebSphere Application Server including security, message queues, Enterprise JavaBeans and a variety of Java EE assets; for DB2 Express-C, JDBC connections and resources, as well persistence of entity JavaBeans to the relational database; and for WebSphere MQ, use of JMS messages and JMS resources.

The Cloud Speeds Code Debug

Traditional development environments require developers to spend time configuring and building the software debug environment. They must first acquire dedicated hardware, then select, install and configure an operating system. Next, middleware components such as an application server, database and other components must be selected, installed and configured. Development teams spread over multiple locations need to repeat this process in each facility.

The Industry Application platform enables developers to skip all of these steps. There’s no need to acquire hardware since Amazon EC2 and IBM’s SmartCloud are always available. The operating system has already been selected and configured. A set of compatible middleware components, capable of supporting a wide variety of application types has been selected, configured and combined with the operating system to create a single image. Developers simply connect to the cloud, select the image, upload their application code and begin to debug.

As an additional aid to the test and debug process, the Rational Agent Controller is included in the image, along with complete procedures for connecting Rational development tools products to the image in the Cloud environment. Developers can take advantage of the Rational Software Architect or Rational Application Developer products —both include tools developers can use across the full range of development tasks .

Developers are freed from the responsibility of maintaining the debug environment. IBM staff keeps track of software updates to the OS and the included IBM products in the image. This frees developers from the task of, tracking updates to new versions of the IBM products included in the image, deciding whether they are mandatory for their development project, and taking the time to install the needed updates. Instead, developers can focus on completing development and testing of components their own application components and overall development effort, and not on the installed key IBM software products in the base image.

The Cloud Cuts Development Costs

Hardware systems dedicated to debug and test represent a fixed cost that is multiplied by the number of individual systems required to support a large development group. While the cost is fixed, systems often sit idle. When in use, only a small percentage of a system’s full processing capacity is utilized.

Hardware cost is just one part of the overall cost. Software licenses must be purchased and support contracts must be maintained on all of the dedicated systems. Additional licenses must be purchased and support contracts updated when additional hardware is purchased.

Moving debug and test to the cloud means paying only for the time actually used. The fixed cost of dedicated hardware is eliminated. There’s no contention between development team members when the whole team needs access to a limited number of systems at the same time. Amazon EC2 and IBM SmartCloud both have ample capacity to support any number of developers. There’s no scramble to acquire hardware if additional staff are added, for example, to speed up the test phase.

License charges are also eliminated. There is no license charge for use of any of the components included in the Development Use Only Industry Application Platform so there’s no need to make sure licenses have been acquired for each dedicated system or keep support contracts up to date. The only cost is for the actual connect time when team members are connected and cloud resources are actually in use. Additional capabilities in the Cloud environments may optionally be used at additional cost that can help further accelerate development and test efforts, for example, availability of dedicated persistent storage in the Cloud to save your own copies of the image with changes to your application code, configuration scripts or any other application assets during the development and test cycle.

Integration and Test Problems Reduced

All members of the development team should debug in identical software environments, but unfortunately, this is not always the case. The problem is more likely to occur when development is spread across different geographies and systems are configured by different team members. In that case, code that worked properly for the individual developer can exhibit subtle problems when moved to another facility for integration and test with other developers’ code.

The problem disappears when dedicated hardware systems are replaced by the cloud. All developers select the same pre-built image. If the image is updated due to patches or new functionality, all developers receive the update at the same time and can deal with any changes before integration begins.

While the Industry Application Platform image executes on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 only, completed applications can be easily transitioned to other operating systems supported for the IBM products in the image, including AIX, HP-UX, IBM i, Linux, Solaris, Windows and z/OS. The included IBM middleware products — Websphere Application Server, DB2 Express-C and WebSphere MQ shields application code from most differences between operating systems.

Industry Application Platform Built from Widely Adopted Components

To create the platform, IBM surveyed business partner industry solutions to determine the selection of components most widely used across a variety of application types and industries. The survey determined that the combination of Websphere Application Server, DB2 and Websphere MQ has been adopted by numerous business partners and customers and has proven to provide a reliable and flexible software infrastructure based on a proven, repeatable architecture pattern. These components have enabled the continuous application enhancement required by rapidly changing business requirements.

Websphere Application Server Platform supports a wide variety of open standards-based programming models, including Java EE 6, OSGi Applications, Web 2.0 and Mobile, Java Batch, XML programming model, Service Component Architecture (SCA), Communications Enabled Applications (CEA), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Dynamic Scripting programming model.

The platform speeds application delivery by encouraging reuse of existing application assets. The variety of programming models supported enables developers to select the appropriate model for their applications. High Performance Extensible Logging (HPEL) speeds and simplifies the work of support engineers and administrators determining the source of application problems and performance bottlenecks.

Websphere MQ provides message queuing facilities that link applications across more than 80 platform configurations. It provides the reliable messaging backbone for SOA connectivity. By integrating among CICS, IMS™, DB2®, Microsoft® .NET and J2EE™ environments, it serves as a vital component for large, distributed organizations that have accumulated diverse IT systems over time.

DB2 is a relational database that offers industry-leading performance, scale and reliability on platforms including Linux, UNIX, Windows and z/OS. It provides an excellent database option for cloud environments due to its threaded-engine architecture that minimizes memory requirements and makes efficient use of the multi-core processors used in virtualized systems on the cloud.

Accelerating Application Development from Concept to Deployment

In too many cases, weeks have been spent researching product specifications to determine which components are designed to work in combination and which provide a solid application infrastructure.

Now even before design begins, developers can save time by taking advantage of IBM’s study of its business partners and customers’ experiences. Developers can be confident choosing to develop on the Industry Application Platform because these components have proven successful for many other developers.

After debug, integration and test are complete, use of the Platform again simplifies and speeds deployment. The application can be deployed using any of the same three IBM software products installed on the base image that were used throughout the development process, minimizing the issues that often occur when software is moved from the development environment to actual customer use.

To get started working with the IBM Industry Application Platform Cloud image, or for more information on the IBM software products or the reference Java EE application included in the image, please refer to the Web pages and resources below.

David B. Jacobs of The Jacobs Group has more than twenty years of networking industry experience. He has managed leading-edge software development projects and consulted to Fortune 500 companies as well as software start-ups.