The JEMS brand brings together Atlanta, Georgia-based JBoss’ various middleware offerings, including the JBoss Application Server, Hibernate persistence and query service, and jBPM business process management engine, into an integrated architecture.
Customers will still be able to choose individual components from the JEMS stack, according to general manager for JBoss EMEA, Sacha Labourey, but the change is designed to reflect a broader set of offerings from the company.
The goal is to have loosely coupled components that could use a different application server if it is required, he explained. There is a brand change we need to go through. JBoss is still known as the application server. We have to explain that JBoss means a proper stack.
As well as the Application Server, Hibernate, and jBPM, JEMS also includes the JBoss Cache, Portal, IDE, and Tomcat technologies, as well as the JBoss AOP 1.0 aspect-oriented framework, and the forthcoming JBoss MicroContainer technology.
MicroContainer blends the existing JMS-based Microkernel with the AOP framework. The result is a bus layer underlying JEMS that enables any service to plug-in and be exposed to Plain Old Java Objects (POJOs), according to JBoss, enabling a central point for the management of the whole JEMS stack.
As we move from the JBoss Application Server to a network of JBoss applications we don’t want be managing JBoss Application Server deployments, we want to be managing JBoss MicroContainers, explained Labourey, comparing the MicroContainer to a motherboard into which other components are connected.
The company is also planning to add to the stack with new management technologies and configuration technologies in 2005 and a new approach to supporting customers. The JBoss Network will be rolled out in the first quarter of 2005, changing JBoss’s support model from reactive to proactive, according to Labourey.
Much like Red Hat Inc’s similarly named systems management service, the JBoss Network will provide portal-based access to JBoss’ knowledgebase, the ability to download sample code and patches, and the proactive push of bug reports and updates.
As well as providing JBoss customers with up-to-date product and service information the JBoss Network will also provide the company with more information about its user base, something that Labourey said it is lacking thanks to the fact its products can be freely downloaded. Today I don’t know if a customer is using JBoss 3.2 or 4.0, but we will be able to know what customers are using, he said. It’s a very valuable source of information.
Following the release of JBoss Network, the company will also add management tool access to enable the patching, migration and updates on JBoss nodes and clusters via the JBoss Management Console.
Labourey added that JEMS is not the complete picture for JBoss, and that the company will over time add new features, such as – potentially – integration capabilities. It will take us one or two years to be there, because what is middleware? It’s a moving target, he said. The stack will grow, it will take time, and it will grow as customers demand. We are very pragmatic about that.
