Back from IBM Connect 2017 in San Francisco. The experience was huge. Meeting the IBM Champions, was like coming home to see my family :-).
Seen a lot and did a lot. The main announcement was the Connections Pink journey. I must say, this is the right path to walk for IBM, business partners and customers. Working together to build a perfect platform is like we know in the Open Source communities. Everyone can contribute to the code to make it better and let thousands of developers design their own needs. Enhancement request can be more efficient this way. IBM must approve your contribution at the end before its embedded in the live code.
What is Connections Pink? It’s a Journey, not a codename for the next Connections version. It’s a new way how IBM builds the next Connections from scratch.
What’s the difference?
It will be Docker based. Docker is a containerized application platform. Containers are located in Public-, private- or local Cloud (or hybride). Load balancing, failover and clustering can be setup by using Docker Swarm technology. ( so exited about it!)
It will no be based on WebSphere and JAVA. The used technology: Modern CI-CD, StrongLoop / IBM API Connect ( node.js/express ), SWIFT / GO, React.js, MongoDB, Redis, Ngnx and Docker.
A single database solution. No more DB2, Oracle and MSSQL. MongoDB will be the single database platform for Connections Pink. This way IBM can more focus a stable solution.
Introduction of two layers: middleware- and database layer. Both are handling communication. Middleware handles the communication between the applications and the Database handles the communication between applications and databases. No more setting up the database source settings for all applications. It’s now setup once: where is the database located and what is it’s credential. The layers have the intelligence to make to connection to the right database on the given location.
Migration to Connections Pink is very easy. The only requirement is that you must have Connections 6 on-prem. In Connections 6 the middleware layers is part of the installation. So when you deploy Connections Pink onto a Docker container and tell it to migrate, the move of content and database will be a automated process. And after the move, the on-prem application will be shot down and the Docker version will take over. The users can’t tell the difference.
The first application IBM offers in Connections Pink, will be Profiles. The new name shall be “People” !!
Overall, an exited and totally new experience we are facing.
Microsoft, eat your heart out !
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