Demonstrating IBM i Next Gen Apps

Things are moving so fast these days, and I’d like to take a step back and a few minutes to share with you some of the findings and solutions available for modernizing and rapidly augmenting your core business solutions on IBM i.

In this article, I'll give a few examples, extracted from real life use cases and questions from customers at the IBM Client Engineering for Systems... Please reach out to us, if any questions or requests.

Referring to Steve Will’s latest post on the subject, the years to come will definitely be about?“IBM i AND the Cloud and Next Gen Apps”. Why ? Because you need to...

1. Respond with the required agility to new business needs. Reducing time to market is key and having a DevOps mindset and processes really help.
2. Design flexible solutions that encapsulate Process & Data with a Data centric & modular design, embracing API’s & micro-services
3. Innovate & differentiate right now by incorporating SaaS but also in house/Open-Source technologies. Business disruption first.

Augmenting reliable and valuable assets is, I think, the best approach and recent market surveys confirm that: by modernizing instead of re-platforming, risk is minimized and return on investment is maximized.

Now, you?want to see how you can achieve that ? You'll find below some technical assets to inspire you. I’ll try to post more details in the next weeks, so please stay tuned!

1. API & Business Asset exposure

A quick win is the ability to securely expose valuable assets, so any cloud based apps can consume them. IBM i is polyglot and there are many ways to expose programs and data on the platform.

I would like to highlight here the Integrated Web Service Server (IWS), a Liberty-based application server that runs on IBM i and can generate REST and SOAP web services that expose your IBM i native (ILE) programs or even Db2 for i data, without any lines of code. Behind the scenes, each IWS-generated web service use a well-known and mature technology, JAX-RS (REST) or JAX-WS (SOAP), a set of classes with jtopen connectivity to ILE programs and Db2 for i. A few concerns around IWS :

• Performance and Reliability: YES, this solution is a robust (WebSphere Liberty) and scalable component that is continuously enhanced! So give it a try at the latest version if you are not convinced.
• Service Security: flow encryption (https) and access management are essential of course, but more recently, access delegation mechanisms like OAuth2 are getting popular as you simply avoid the use of passwords to authenticate client applications willing to consume your API’s.?Good news! IWS now supports out of the box a new security feature, Trust Application Interceptor (TAI) , a programmable authentication mechanism!

The use of third-party token-based authentication on IBM i is now at your fingertips. And it's possible to integrated IWS with an API management reverse proxy like IBM API Connect or other OAuth2 / OpenID compatible API management solution. Nginx or Node.js based APIm frameworks on IBM i are very good alternatives and can do that too, but it cannot be denied that TAI is easy to implement if you already have IWS up and running.

Below, you'll find a TAI sample code (provided as-is) with build and configuration instructions. The goal of such demo? you can right now expose COBOL or RPG business assets through REST Web Services with Third-Party JWT token authentication. https://github.com/bmarolleau/iws-tai-security#readme (code, documentation, pptx)

?2.Data centric modernization & governance :?IBM Data Fabric

First, what is a Data Fabric??

A data fabric architecture provides a connective tissue between data endpoints — enabling the full breadth of data management capabilities including integration, discovery, governance, curation, and orchestration.

IBM i is in general the place where critical business data reside. In complex hybrid cloud environments,?you need a means to ability to view, access, manipulate and analyze data without the need to know or understand its physical format or location, and without having to move or copy it.??

This IBM Data Fabric demo below show you how to simplify ETL process and virtualize Db2 for i databases (free jtopen or Db2 Connect) in various stores and branches. It is a good starting point for any organization willing to create value from dispersed information, from multiple clouds, B2B/partners or regulation tiers, and core business ERP/CRM data.

RetailOne demonstration, "Access your data where they reside" (code, pptx, video)

3. Modernization, on any Cloud

?Cloud computing, open source and containers are becoming essential in this “Next Gen Apps” journey.?Here are a few assets around Cloud, containerized front-end apps and IBM i:

• Get started quickly with basic concepts, hands-on and free access to Red Hat OpenShift: IBM i & Containers 101

• Power10 Matrix Math Assist (MMA) with IBM i proof point, by our IBM i Open source master, Jesse Gorzinski: Real time AI predictions with async integration : *DTAQ with Apache Kafka & Camel (IBM Developer web site).
• Learn how to get started with Power Virtual Server (IaaS), a different way of consuming IBM i, in the Cloud.?Two interesting hands-on labs, beginner and intermediate level.

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