JBoss Fuse vs Tibco Matrix
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Red Hat JBoss Fuse and TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 are both integration platforms that allow messages to be received, processed, and delivered between systems. Red Hat JBoss Fuse uses the open source Apache Camel framework and includes the Red Hat JBoss A-MQ messaging platform. TIBCO's offerings are proprietary and require separate licensing of additional components like messaging platforms. Red Hat provides consistent private, public and hybrid cloud capabilities using OpenShift, while TIBCO's cloud offerings are inconsistent with different technologies. Pricing and licensing models also differ between the open source Red Hat products and TIBCO's proprietary solutions.
JBoss Fuse vs Tibco Matrix
- 1. redhat.com facebook.com/redhatinc @redhatnews linkedin.com/company/red-hat RED HAT TIBCO RED HAT JBOSS FUSE TIBCO ACTIVEMATRIX BUSINESSWORKS Core integration technology Apache Camel, the industry standard for defining integration solutions. Proprietary. Integration messaging Includes Red Hat® JBoss® A-MQ, a multi-protocol messaging platform with support for Java Message Service (JMS), AMQP, MQTT, (and more) with multi-language client support. Separate licensing may be required for integration messaging. Clustering Robust technology for reliable and consistent definition, deployment, and management of clustering environments using either text based, or graphical user interface tools. Clustering capabilities included, but requires manual editing of files. No tools provided for reliable cluster topology reproduction. Cloud Consistent cloud environment for public private, and hybrid clouds using OpenShift by Red Hat that leverages popular open technologies throughout. Inconsistent cloud offerings with different technologies. Difficult to objectively determine if any represent TIBCO’s strategic cloud technology. Access to software for evaluation and development. All Red Hat JBoss middleware products available for subscription can be easily downloaded for evaluation and development. Limited availability to download software and development tools. Pricing Available to the public that can provided impressive return on investment (ROI) based on research by the International Data Corporation (IDC). No public pricing available. Technology source Open source. Proprietary. Licensing GNU General Public License and GNU Lesser General Public License Proprietary. RED HAT JBOSS FUSE COMPARED WITH TIBCO ACTIVEMATRIX BUSINESSWORKS 6.3 February 2016 COMPETITIVE REVIEW
- 2. 2redhat.com COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss Fuse compared with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 INTRODUCTION This competitive review provides a comparison of technology from Red Hat and TIBCO for system integration. The two products commonly compared are Red Hat JBoss Fuse and TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3. Comparison of these products focuses on features that allow messages to be received, processed, and delivered to target systems. How each product accomplishes these tasks varies, and in the case of integration patterns, varies significantly. Still, system integration is possi- ble using either product, and many find they deliver similar integration solutions based on use cases. To see the greater differences between Red Hat and TIBCO technologies for system integration, take a look at the bigger picture. Red Hat JBoss Fuse includes JBoss A-MQ for messaging, while TIBCO messaging products are licensed separately from TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3. For cloud deployments, Red Hat offers consistent private, public, and hybrid cloud capabilities which differ significantly from TIBCO’s offerings. Red Hat also makes it easy for customers to acquire products for evaluation and developer usage — and the IDC has determined that Red Hat’s subscription pricing model can provide a compelling return on investment (ROI).1 Finally, no Red Hat comparison would be complete without an open source discussion. Open source is core to all Red Hat products, and it offers distinct advantages over proprietary technologies offered by competitors like TIBCO. You can read the contents of this competitive review from start to finish, or in discrete sections, according to your needs. INTEGRATION OVERVIEW Enterprises need to integrate their systems and applications to share data between them. Without this ability, the effectiveness of any given system is realized only by users of that system. When integrated, systems can exchange data and increase the cumulative value of that data throughout the enterprise. Unfortunately, most commercial application software does not offer pre-built system integrations. Those that do may only integrate systems from the same vendor. Application integration is a large and common enough challenge for enterprises that several software companies offer products that include integration technology in their product portfolios. Both Red Hat and TIBCO offer multiple integration technologies. At the core of these product portfolios are enterprise service bus (ESB) and messaging technologies, which process messages in a logical sequence, often requiring the transformation of messages from one format to another. For every message received, one or more messages must go out to systems being integrated via a predetermined messaging protocol. Taking a broader view, data virtualization, business rules, and even business processes can be used to build more complex integrations. For example, applying business rules can help assure that message payloads are properly formatted and routed to their proper destinations. Additional technologies such as complex event processing, and analytics can be used to examine and analyze data. However, such technologies arguably represent integration targets rather than parts of a core integration solution. IN THIS REVIEW: • Introduction • Integration Overview • Integration development using patterns • Enterprise messaging platform • Reliable messaging • MQ Telemetry Transport (MQTT) • Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) • Clustering • Load balancing • Cluster management • Cloud advantages • Public cloud deployments • Private cloud deployments • A solid cloud foundation • A solid and popular cloud container • Cloud scalability and the Kubernetes advantage • Portability • Product acquisition • Cost of development tools • Developer access to additional middleware • Pricing • Open source • Licensing • Indemnification 1 “Value of Red Hat Integration Products.” Red Hat Resources. Red Hat, Dec. 2014. Web. 15 Oct. 2015. <http://www.redhat.com/en/resources/value-red-hat-integration-products>.
- 3. 3redhat.com COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss Fuse compared with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 INTEGRATION DEVELOPMENT USING PATTERNS Red Hat JBoss Fuse includes Apache Camel open source software, with out-of-the-box, standards- based integration patterns — the de facto model for discussing enterprise integration — based on the book Enterprise Integration Patterns by Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf.2 Red Hat JBoss Fuse supports nearly 50 different patterns in the following categories: • Message routing • Messaging endpoints • Messaging systems • Messaging channels • Message transformation • Message construction • System management TIBCO integration solutions are not implemented using Camel. Instead, they use a proprietary method for defining integration solutions — and people with TIBCO skills may be more difficult to find than those with open source Camel skills. ENTERPRISE MESSAGING PLATFORM Messaging is used to transport data between integrating systems. Arguably, the flow of messages between systems represents the heartbeat of an enterprise. Every Red Hat JBoss Fuse subscription includes the ability to use Red Hat JBoss A-MQ for messaging. RELIABLE MESSAGING Red Hat JBoss A-MQ provides reliable out-of-the-box messaging capabilities for Red Hat JBoss Fuse. The product is a standards-based, open source messaging platform that deploys with a very small footprint. Key features include: • Java Message Service (JMS) 1.1-compliant messaging, plus additional protocols including Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) 1.03 and MQTT. • High-performance delivery of information. • Connectivity options from multiple languages.4 • Transaction protection. • Ability to access the messaging system using C, C++, and .NET. • Streaming Text Oriented Messaging Protocol (STOMP) — a platform-neutral protocol that supports client access to messaging written in scripting languages (Perl, PHP, Python, and Ruby) as well as Java, .NET, C, and C++. • IP multicast, which provides one-to-many communications over an IP network, enabling brokers to set up a network of other brokers and helping clients to connect with brokers. • Community-to-enterprise transition • Community innovation • Potential ROI • Summary 2 Enterprise Integration Patterns table of contents - http://www.enterpriseintegrationpatterns.com/toc.html 3 Provided as a technology preview 4 OpenWire and STOMP protocols are supported - http://fusesource.com/docs/mqent/7.1/prod_intro/prod_intro.pdf TIP: Developer productivity is increased when problems are solved using repeatable patterns instead of “one off” solutions. Do end users of your systems tend to assume that messaging between systems will be reliable regardless of the device they are using?
- 4. 4redhat.com COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss Fuse compared with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 licensing does not include an independently executed messaging platform. It must be licensed separately using products like TIBCO Enterprise Message Service to provide JMS messaging. However, acquiring TIBCO Enterprise Message Service for TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 exposes you to additional license fees, long-term associated mainte- nance, and support. No such exposure exists for Red Hat JBoss Fuse customers who use the included Red Hat JBoss A-MQ messaging platform within the terms of a Red Hat JBoss Fuse subscription. MQ TELEMETRY TRANSPORT (MQTT) MQTT is an important communication protocol for Internet of Things development and is growing in importance for mobile application communications. Red Hat JBoss A-MQ includes support for this protocol but the TIBCO Enterprise Message Service does not. Instead, TIBCO supports MQTT via the TIBCO StreamBase Complex Event Processing (CEP) product positioned for real-time data feeds with high throughput. It must be licensed separately and then integrated with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 to send or receive MQTT messages. ADVANCED MESSAGE QUEUING PROTOCOL (AMQP) AMQP can be used as an alternative wire protocol for messaging. AMQP is a specification (not a product) created to enable a reliable messaging protocol, and a fairly complete specification for the most commonly used middleware functionality. A major difference between AMQP and JMS is that AMQP was created with messaging compatibility between multiple languages in mind. JMS was created with Java in mind. To expand usage beyond Java, both Red Hat JBoss A-MQ and TIBCO Enterprise Message Service have added support for additional languages. However, this support does not necessarily overcome some significant JMS weaknesses. Specifically, JMS does not describe how to implement a messaging service — although it imposes significant constraints on the messaging behavior— nor does it specify any details of the wire protocol for transmitting messages. Consequently, different JMS implementations are generally not interoperable. Red Hat JBoss A-MQ does include support for AMQP, and provides the functionality to help exchange messages between JMS and AMQP sources. TIBCO does not offer an AMQP messaging product, although it does offer messaging options other than JMS. However, individually licensed messaging products like TIBCO FTL and TIBCO Rendezvous are based on proprietary protocols. AMQP, by comparison, is an open specification that any vendor can implement. This allows customers the flexibility to change AMQP vendors if needed to reduce the risk of vendor lock-in. No similar vendor flexibility exists for users of the proprietary TIBCO FTL and TIBCO Rendezvous protocols. CLUSTERING System scalability and reliability is critical for production integration solutions. Put simply, there must be enough processing capacity available to handle integration messages, meet service level agreements, help minimize response times, and improve system reliability. Clustering for on-premise and cloud environments often differs. LOAD BALANCING Once you have a cluster established, consider how messages will reach that cluster for process- ing. Messages should be capable of reaching any of the clustered servers, and each server should receive a balanced load. Red Hat JBoss Fuse provides more out-of-the-box functionality to balance load across servers than you will find in TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3, including: Has mobile or Internet of Things integration been a challenge? TIP: Distributing load over multiple server instances helps reduce the chance that a single server failure will bring down the entire system.
- 5. 5redhat.com COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss Fuse compared with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 • The Fabric Gateway within Red Hat JBoss Fuse, which provides dynamic discovery, load balancing, and failover of services. It also supports TCP communications using OpenWire, STOMP, MQTT, AMQP, and WebSockets. • The use of standard URLs with web applications or web services that communicate using HTTPS and still achieve load balancing. • Monitoring and detection of any changes in the server deployment topology, and dynamic application of mapping rules that expose those deployed services through TCP or HTTP. As a result, Red Hat JBoss Fuse can load-balance messages for most communication protocols. TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 operates on the concept of load sharing — meaning that the work is shared out between a number of TIBCO server instances, if not necessarily equally — rather than load balancing. TIBCO does not expose load-sharing parameters that would allow users to tune load distribution between servers. Users can only indicate that deployed integration solutions are part of a cluster, and TIBCO will automatically distribute load. CLUSTER MANAGEMENT How clusters are defined, managed, and deployed is very different between Red Hat JBoss Fuse and TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3. Red Hat JBoss Fuse has a set of robust functionality for managing its deployment topologies known as Fabric. Of the Fabric features, the ability to create profiles — descriptions of how to provision a logical group of containers (servers) — is one of the most important. Profiles can have hierarchies, and be versioned, which allows you to upgrade or roll back containers by changing the version of the profiles they use. Within a profile is everything you need to deploy a topology. Profiles allow users to deploy topolo- gies as needed through environments such as testing, production, and disaster recovery. And Fabric supports profiles for both Red Hat JBoss Fuse and the included Red Hat JBoss A-MQ product used for messaging. TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks does not include similar functionalities. Instead, users manu- ally edit configuration files — a potentially error-prone process for even the most seasoned system administrator. This manual editing process extends this potential for error whenever environments are modified or duplicated requiring the re-distribution of files. CLOUD ADVANTAGES Deploying integration solutions in cloud environments continues to grow in popularity. An integra- tion platform that only works on dedicated servers and virtual environments may soon become obsolete. While it’s easy to check if an integration product is available in a cloud environment, a deeper look into the details can uncover interesting differences. PUBLIC CLOUD DEPLOYMENTS While Red Hat JBoss Fuse and TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 functionality are both available for use in public cloud environments, only Red Hat JBoss Fuse is available from a variety of cloud providers. Red Hat JBoss Fuse is offered via OpenShift Online by Red Hat, or subscribers can potentially deploy from over 50 Red Hat Certified Cloud Service Providers, including Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.5 5 “Find a Red Hat Certified Cloud Provider.” Partners. Red Hat, n.d. Web. 07 Aug. 2015. <http://www.redhat.com/en/ partners/find-certified-cloud-providers>. TIP: Even the best system administrators can make keystroke errors. System management solutions with functionality to replicate envi- ronments precisely can cut down on administration errors. TIP: Having a choice of only one cloud provider is a new form of the old vendor lock-in problem.
- 6. 6redhat.com COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss Fuse compared with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 Red Hat JBoss Fuse subscriptions can be used on-premise or in cloud environments, with all subscription benefits transferring to the public cloud — including access to Red Hat sales and its award-winning support. TIBCO public cloud offerings are split over three products. The first is TIBCO Silver Fabric, a cloud enablement and management platform that runs on Microsoft Windows and Linux® engines and can be used to deliver integration and other middleware services. Although TIBCO documentation states that TIBCO Silver Fabric can be used in a public cloud infrastructure, Red Hat research did not reveal any pubic cloud providers for it. The second offering is TIBCO Cloud Bus, which is currently available on Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a subscription service. The third offering is TIBCO BusinessWorks Container Edition — essentially a reduced-function version of TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks — delivered as a buildpack within the Pivotal Cloud Foundry environment. JBoss Fuse running on OpenShift Online provides consistent technology regardless of the Red Hat Certified Cloud Service Provider hosting the public cloud. PRIVATE CLOUD DEPLOYMENTS OpenShift Enterprise by Red Hat subscribers can install, manage, and use all product features in a private cloud deployment. Not only is Red Hat JBoss Fuse fully supported on OpenShift Enterprise, but subscribers can also mix usage with Red Hat JBoss Fuse running in OpenShift Online to create a hybrid cloud environment. TIBCO offers two private cloud deployment options. The first option is TIBCO Silver Fabric. The second option is to use TIBCO BusinessWorks Container Edition within a Pivotal Cloud Foundry environment. Users should question which of the TIBCO private integration cloud offerings is the most strategic for TIBCO. In April 2015, TIBCO announced that it “is ‘all-in’ with AWS, meaning TIBCO utilizes AWS as the core infrastructure for its cloud offerings.”6 Both TIBCO Silver Fabric and Pivotal Cloud Foundry can run on AWS. However, the TIBCO BusinessWorks Container Edition announced in October 2015 has only been stated to run on Pivotal Cloud Foundry. A SOLID CLOUD FOUNDATION OpenShift by Red Hat uses Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform, as its base operating system. Each OpenShift Enterprise subscription includes full support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 is supported by TIBCO when deploying on-premise and by TIBCO Silver Fabric in cloud environments. However, a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 subscription would be required for use. No documentation indicates which operating system is used to run TIBCO Silver Fabric or Pivotal Cloud Foundry on Amazon Web Services. 6 “TIBCO Goes “All-In” With Amazon Web Services.” TIBCO Press Releases. TIBCO, 9 Apr. 2015. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. <http://www.tibco.com/company/news/releases/2015/tibco-goes-all-in-with-amazon-web-services>.
- 7. 7redhat.com COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss Fuse compared with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 A SOLID AND POPULAR CLOUD CONTAINER Deploying containers in cloud environments is becoming a popular choice. OpenShift by Red Hat uses the Red Hat Atomic container image, which is is compatible with Docker-formatted container images, as its standard container format. This image format is rapidly becoming an industry stan- dard for defining containers and includes an API to interact with the container. Red Hat JBoss Fuse on OpenShift version 3 by Red Hat is distributed as a Red Hat Atomic Container Image. Red Hat Enterprise Linux forms the base of the JBoss Fuse Red Hat Atomic container image, which provides seamless interaction with the underlying kernel of the host operating system. The kernel provides system calls that containers use to run — and once running, the operating system function- ality is layered on top of the host kernel functionality. TIBCO has not provided evidence that any of its current cloud offerings use docker or Red Hat container technology. An August 2015 TIBCO blog entry indicated that support for docker running TIBCO software in the future might be possible.7 The TIBCO Silver Fabric product page mentions it can leverage Docker, but this information is not included in documentation for the current 5.7.1 release.8 CLOUD SCALABILITY AND THE KUBERNETES ADVANTAGE Using containers is a good first step for mixing the use of integration and cloud technology. Developers and testing personnel are often only working with a small number of containers. However, deploying containers at product scale brings new challenges — such as starting containers on multiple hosts without having to log into each separately, or starting multiple containers with complementary technology on multiple hosts, at scale. For these and other challenges, you need a method for orches- trating and managing container deployment. You can use Kubernetes to orchestrate integration solutions deployed on Red Hat JBoss Fuse within an OpenShift environment. Kubernetes, an open source project that Google launched based on its experience running its own applications at scale. When Google notified Red Hat of their intent to launch Kubernetes for container orchestration and management, Red Hat saw the opportunity to collaborate and drive another standard to propel container technology forward. Multiple Red Hat developers are leading contributors for both the Kubernetes and Docker projects. Red Hat is the number two contributor behind Google for the Kubernetes project9 and is the number three contributor to the Docker project. Kubernetes relies on technology from the docker project to package, instantiate and run application containers. Kubernetes then implements a declarative model for managing containerized applica- tion deployments, allowing the user to state the desired end state. Once this state is established, Kubernetes applies automated, self-healing mechanisms that can restart and replicate containers, reschedule them on different hosts, and even replicate them for auto-scaling. It is the key component in OpenShift for web scaling, managing, and ensuring the reliability of cloud deployments, including Red Hat JBoss Fuse. 7 Waehner, Kai. “Docker Containers in the TIBCO Universe.” The TIBCO Blog. TIBCO, 25 Aug. 2015. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. <http://www.tibco.com/blog/2015/08/28/docker-containers-in-the-tibco-universe/>. 8 “TIBCO Silver Fabric.” TIBCO Product Documentation. TIBCO, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. <https://docs.tibco.com/pub/ silver_fabric/5.7.1/doc/html/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm>. 9 “TIBCO Silver Fabric.” TIBCO Product Documentation. TIBCO, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. <https://docs.tibco.com/pub/ silver_fabric/5.7.1/doc/html/wwhelp/wwhimpl/js/html/wwhelp.htm>. TIP: Avoid cloud containers technology that is only useful for one cloud environment. Find a technology that works within and without cloud environments.
- 8. 8redhat.com COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss Fuse compared with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 None of TIBCO’s integration cloud services options use Kubernetes. Instead, technologies vary by TIBCO cloud solution. TIBCO Silver Fabric uses proprietary technology. TIBCO BusinessWorks Container Edition on Pivotal Cloud Foundry uses Warden orchestration technology, but a future version will use Diego technology. Running containers at scale is difficult to do correctly. The depth of experience Google gained over the years is reflected in the Kubernetes architecture and principles. PORTABILITY All Red Hat JBoss Middleware container images used with OpenShift by Red Hat are based on a combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host. This gives the container portability between physical and virtual servers, and public and private cloud environments. The combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host’s shared certifications, OpenStack® , and docker-formatted containers makes this possible. Portability gives enterprises flexibility. However, many prefer running Red Hat Atomic Container Image within OpenShift Enterprise, using docker and Kubernetes, with all the benefits of fully scalable and manageable cloud environment. PRODUCT ACQUISITION Red Hat JBoss Fuse is an easy Red Hat JBoss Middleware platform to acquire. All functionality is contained in a single platform bundle including Red Hat JBoss A-MQ. Subscriptions run in 1- and 3-year terms and cover 16 or 64 cores. TIBCO offers multiple products for ESB and messaging. For ESB functionality, TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks provides full functionality with unrestricted usage. Alternatively, ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks Express is a data integration tool for web and mobile projects only, and is limited to exposing SOAP and REST services. Integration solutions created using the TIBCO Express version can be migrated to the full version if the proper licensing is in place. TIBCO Enterprise Message Service can provide JMS messaging, while TIBCO FTL and TIBCO Rendezvous protocols can be separately acquired to supplement the TIBCO Enterprise Message Service functionality. Users can license TIBCO StreamBase for MQTT, but no TIBCO product supports AMQP. NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE FOR SUPPORTED DEVELOPERS Every 16 cores of Red Hat JBoss Fuse subscription includes support for 25 developers working with the product. Developers are encouraged to use the freely-available JBoss Developer Studio to develop for Red Hat JBoss A-MQ and all other products in the Red Hat JBoss Middleware portfolio. TIBCO does not provide a free development environment for TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks or for the multiple messaging products. TIBCO Business Studio is available as a 30-day evaluation, but must be licensed for any other use. DEVELOPER ACCESS TO ADDITIONAL MIDDLEWARE Your Red Hat JBoss Fuse subscription gives you development rights to all Red Hat JBoss Middleware platforms. Specifically, every 16 cores of a Red Hat Middleware subscription gives 25 developers development rights to all Red Hat JBoss Middleware platforms. As a result, developers can easily explore how other Red Hat JBoss Middleware products, such as Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization, Red Hat JBoss BRMS, Red Hat JBoss BPM Suite, and others that complement Red Hat JBoss Fuse. TIP: Open access to software allows developers to learn software on their schedule — without a vendor’s artificial time limits.
- 9. 9redhat.com COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss Fuse compared with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 Conversely, a TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks license does not entitle developers access to other TIBCO products. For such access, customers must license the desired TIBCO software or find a way to obtain a trial copy. A limited subset of the overall TIBCO product portfolio is available for download and use within the terms of a trial license. PRICING Red Hat JBoss pricing is based on two factors: the number of cores, and the subscription service level agreement. For core counts, all Red Hat JBoss Middleware subscriptions are available in increments of 16 or 64 cores. Whenever larger core counts are needed, those increments are combined, and every subscription includes all product functionality. Whenever possible Red Hat includes a price comparison section in competitive reviews. Since TIBCO does not make product pricing available to the public, we were unable to provide a comparison here. POTENTIAL ROI Red Hat commissioned IDC to document some of the many companies that have benefited from a JBoss Fuse subscription.10 IDC interviewed six organizations that achieved significant business value using Red Hat JBoss Fuse, in particular by making their application integration and development efforts more efficient and productive. IDC calculates that these organizations are achieving a three- year average ROI of 488%, and earning back their investments in JBoss Fuse in 8.2 months by: • Streamlining application integration and development efforts to save staff time. • Integrating and developing more business applications. • Driving higher user productivity levels through quicker access to applications and improved application performance. • Regaining productivity lost to application downtime. • Reducing spend on application subscriptions and hardware costs. IDC also determined business value benefits of: • 51.5% more applications integrated per year. • 40.8% fewer FTEs per application integration. • 62.8% less application downtime related to integration. • 18.1% improved middleware integration solution performance. • 34.2% less costly then previous middleware integration solution. OPEN SOURCE The core of all Red Hat products is open source and complies with associated open standards. Sometimes the value of open source and the added value Red Hat offers in this area get lost when comparing to proprietary vendors like TIBCO. 10 “Value of Red Hat Integration Products.” Red Hat Resources. Red Hat, Dec. 2014. Web. 15 Oct. 2015. <http://www. redhat.com/en/resources/value-red-hat-integration-products>. What extra work is created when a vendor does not make pricing public and you want to make sure a fair price is being offered?
- 10. 10redhat.com COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss Fuse compared with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 LICENSING Red Hat’s middleware platforms are licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License and GNU Lesser General Public License, with the acquired FuseSource products covered under the Apache Software License (ASL). Each of these licenses are used by other open source projects outside of the Red Hat portfolio, and have been widely reviewed and accepted. TIBCO products are licensed using terms and conditions that are not as permissive as the GNU General Public License and GNU Lesser General Public License. Customers, especially commercial software providers who want to build integration solutions and re-sell them, should consider if TIBCO licensing terms and conditions are too restrictive. INDEMNIFICATION TIBCO asks the question, “How do you know there aren’t IP issues in the code, like in the Novell/SCO UNIX case? Will your vendor indemnify you against lawsuits?” within a page on its website.11 This is a good question, and one that Red Hat answers with the Open Source Assurance program. The Open Source Assurance program provides certain assurances to customers in the event there is an intellectual property issue with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat JBoss Middleware, or any other Red Hat subscription product. These assurances include: • Replacing the infringing portion of the software. • Modifying the software so that its use becomes non-infringing, or per the next point. • Obtaining the rights necessary for a customer to continue its use of the software without interruption. The Open Source Assurance program also provides indemnification as an additional protection. All customers with valid Red Hat subscriptions are eligible for this program. With the Red Hat Open Source Assurance program, the concern TIBCO expresses is negated. However, TIBCO also raises the points that “IP issues aside, source reviews don’t help you assess security, scalability, interoperability, or other important architectural features. By its very nature, open source is also less controlled in deployment and patch management.”12 Red Hat agrees with TIBCO on this point. Open source in its raw, unhardened form can pose a risk. That is why Red Hat invests significant time and effort addressing these and other issues when creating subscriber versions of open source projects. The specifics of what what Red Hat does is well documented in the Subscription Guide for Red Hat JBoss Middleware.13 11 “The Alternative to an Open Source ESB.” Open Source ESB Alternative. TIBCO, n.d. Web. 16 July 2015. <http://www.tibco.com/integration/open-source-ESB-alternative>. 12 “The Alternative to an Open Source ESB.” Open Source ESB Alternative. TIBCO, n.d. Web. 16 July 2015. <http://www.tibco.com/integration/open-source-ESB-alternative>. 13 “Resources.” Subscription Guide for Red Hat JBoss Middleware. Red Hat, n.d. Web. 16 July 2015. <http://www.redhat.com/en/resources/subscription-guide-red-hat-jboss-middleware>. TIP: Access to open source allows you benefits such as being able to expand upon existing functionality without having to start coding from scratch. Has your company ever been question about iolating IP issues based on software in use?
- 11. 11redhat.com COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss Fuse compared with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3 COMMUNITY-TO-ENTERPRISE TRANSITION Red Hat community open source projects are the basis for enterprise products like Red Hat JBoss Fuse. Software-hardening code changes made to enterprise versions are included with Red Hat subscriptions. With the exception of JBoss Operations Network, all Red Hat JBoss Fuse functionality is also found in the upstream community projects. This helps simplify the transition to JBoss Fuse for customers using upstream community projects. Transitioning from community to JBoss Fuse has other benefits such as bug and security fixes, platform certification, and more.14 COMMUNITY INNOVATION Red Hat community projects are fortunate to commonly have large developer communities. While Red Hat does have developers on staff, those developers contribute their code to the open source community. Red Hat developers also regularly collaborate with other developers who represent other companies. The result is a diverse developer community that creates innovative technology born from a broad vision of what features are needed. In the case of Red Hat JBoss Fuse, the majority of code comes from the Apache ActiveMQ, Apache Camel, Apache CXF, Apache Karaf, and Fuse Fabric projects. Each project has a sizable community working on the open source code: • The Fuse Fabric project has over 200 team members, by way of the Fabric8.io • The Apache ActiveMQ project has nearly 50 code committers and nearly 75 contributors • The Apache Camel project has around 40 code committers and around 90 contributors • The Apache CXF project has around 30 code committers • The Apache Karaf project has around 22 code committers The overall community contributing to projects associated with Red Hat JBoss Fuse is a sizable development staff — one that some proprietary companies would be hard-pressed to match. But community size alone cannot account for the worldwide population of Red Hat employees associ- ated with the success of Red Hat JBoss Fuse via product safety, support, services, and more. SUMMARY This competitive review between Red Hat and TIBCO integration technologies has presented multiple differences between the products. A notable difference is that only Red Hat JBoss Fuse is a 100% open source product. Red Hat is committed to leveraging existing open source projects and using open standards whenever possible for both product implementation and integration communication. This includes Camel, the de-facto integration standard included with Red Hat JBoss Fuse. Red Hat’s open source commitment extends to Active MQ, the upstream messaging technology used with JBoss A-MQ and included with Red Hat JBoss Fuse. Another difference is that Red Hat JBoss Fuse clustering is based on the upstream Fabric8 commu- nity project and offers much more functionality than TIBCO clustering options. 14 “Subscription Guide for Red Hat JBoss Middleware.” (n.d.): n. pag. Red Hat. Red Hat. Web. 5 Oct. 2015. <http://www.redhat.com/en/files/resources/en-rhjb-subscription-guide-12149557.pdf>. TIP: Companies that contribute to open source code lines are generally more familiar with the code than those companies that simply embed the source code into their products.
- 12. Copyright © 2016 Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, and JBoss are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. NORTH AMERICA 1 888 REDHAT1 EUROPE, MIDDLE EAST, AND AFRICA 00800 7334 2835 [email protected] ASIA PACIFIC +65 6490 4200 [email protected] LATIN AMERICA +54 11 4329 7300 [email protected] redhat.com INC0342736_0216 facebook.com/redhatinc @redhatnews linkedin.com/company/red-hat ABOUT RED HAT Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage, and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As a connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. For cloud deployments, only Red Hat JBoss Fuse is available for use in public, private, and hybrid cloud environments using OpenShift — a Red Hat cloud product based on multiple popular and current industry standard technologies such as OpenStack, docker-formatted images, and Kubernetes. Plus, the OpenShift operating system is Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which allows you to use the same operating system for both on-premise and cloud environments. Companies such as Boeing, Cisco, Amadeus, FICO, and more are running OpenShift and realizing significant benefits15 . Red Hat JBoss Fuse is available in 16- and 64-core entitlements at a price that can provide a rapid ROI, as reported by IDC. Subscribers can use those savings to start more projects, deploy more mid- dleware throughout the enterprise, and apply more time and budget towards innovation. Innovate more and spend less with a Red Hat JBoss Fuse subscription. Contact your Red Hat sales professional for more information. 15 “Our Customers.” OpenShift Customers. Red Hat, n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2015. <https://enterprise.openshift.com/customers/>. COMPETITIVE REVIEW Red Hat JBoss Fuse compared with TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks 6.3